[a. F. conceptacle or (its source) L. conceptācul-um receptacle, f. concept- ppl. stem of concipĕre. In scientific use (sense 2) the L. form is sometimes retained.]
† 1. ‘That in which anything is contained; a vessel’ (J.); a receptacle. Obs.
1611. Cotgr., Conceptacle, a conceptacle; any hollow thing, which is apt to receiue, hold, or containe.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, Pref. There is … in that huge conceptacle, water enough to effect such a deluge.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 35. The prime Conceptacle of motion.
2. † a. Anat. The uterus; any vessel or cavity of the body.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 827. The Veines which Aristotle cals the vesselles or conceptacles of bloud.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xviii. 49. The Conceptacle for the right Kidney was to be larger.
† b. Bot. = FOLLICLE. Obs.
Conceptaculum ‘was originally applied by Linnæus to what is now called follicle; and subsequently applied to the pair of follicles of Asclepiadaceæ and Apocynaceæ.’
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., Conceptacle or Follicle, a pericarp of one valve opening longitudinally on one side, and having the seeds loose in it.
c. Biol. A cavity-like organ containing the reproductive cells in some plants and animals of low organization.
1835. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (1848), II. 95. These granules, commonly called sporangia, thecæ, capsules, or conceptacles.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat., V. 216. The male conceptacles present … an arrangement of branched filaments.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 905. The same conceptacle of Fucus platycarpus produces both oogonia and antheridia.
