[ad. L. agglūtinātiōn-em, n. of action f. agglūtinā-re: see AGGLUTINATE a.]
1. The action of agglutinating or gluing together; the state of adhesion or cohesion.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 C iij b. The causes that let and hyndre the agglutynacyon.
a. 1655. Vines, Lords Supper (1677), 402. Reputed Christians and believers, by an outward profession and agglutination.
1802. Smithson, in Phil. Trans., XCIII. 27. The sort of agglutination which happens between the particles of subsided … precipitates.
1878. Bell, trans. Gegenbauer’s Comp. Anat., 83. Some are distinguished by the agglutination of foreign bodies—cemented grains of sand.
2. Philol. The combination of simple or root words into compound terms, without material change of form or loss of meaning.
1830. Coleridge, Table Talk, 7 May. The Platt-Deutsch was a compact language like the English, not admitting much agglutination.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, iv. (1873), 125. Agglutination may be described as that principle of linguistic structure which consists in the mere placing of unaltered roots side by side.
† 3. Astron. (See quot.) Obs.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Agglutination is used by some Astronomers to denote the meeting of two or more stars in the same part of the zodiac. Agglutination is more peculiarly understood of the seeming coalition of several stars, so as to form a nebulous star.
4. That which is agglutinated or cemented together; a mass or group formed by the adhesion of separate things.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 937. Aboue the forehead as farre as to the scaly agglutinations.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. II. ii. 344. Sparta was … but a mere agglutination of five adjacent villages.
1877. Roberts, Handbk. Med. (ed. 3), I. 50. The formation of thickenings, adhesions, or agglutinations in connection with the membrane.
