a. (and sb.) [a. F. cérébral, f. on L. type *cerebrālis, f. cerebrum: see -AL.]
1. Pertaining or relating to the brain, or to the cerebrum; of the nature of or analogous to a brain, e.g., a cerebral ganglion. Cerebral hemispheres: the two great divisions of the cerebrum. Cerebral nerves: the twelve pairs of nerve-trunks that arise from the brain.
1848. W. Lawrence, Comp. Anat., 341 (L.). If the nobler attributes of man reside in the cerebral hemispheres.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., 343. Written under cerebral excitement.
1871. W. A. Hammond, Dis. Nervous Syst., 33. Cerebral congestion. Ibid., 74. Cerebral hæmorrhage.
1875. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. III. xliii. 491. Man’s superior cerebral development.
2. Cerebral letters: a name given by some to a class of consonants recognized in Sanskrit and other Indian languages, developed from the dentals by retracting the tongue and applying its tip to the palate. Also as sb.
1805. Colebrooke, Gram. Sanskr. Lang., 24. A dental consonant … being contiguous to a cerebral, or following (not preceding) [char.] is changed to the corresponding cerebral.
1857. Monier Williams, Sanskr. Gram., i. 9. The … cerebrals should be … produced by turning back the tip of the tongue towards the palate, or top of the head (cerebrum).
1879. Whitney, Sanskr. Gram., § 45. Lingual series…. They are called by the grammarians mūrdhanya, literally ‘head sounds, capitals, cephalics’; which term is in many European grammars rendered by ‘cerebrals.’
Hence Cerebralism, the theory that mental operations arise from the action of the brain; Cerebralist, one who holds this theory. Cerebralization, a making a consonant ‘cerebral’ (cf. labializātion, palatalization).
1881. N. Porter, in Trans. Victoria Inst., XIV. 63. Bain’s gross physiological cerebralism.
