Pl. cornua. The Latin word for a horn: applied in Anat. to various processes resembling or likened to horns: esp. a. The two processes or lateral cavities of the womb (cornua uteri), into which the Fallopian tubes open. b. The three processes of each of the lateral ventricles of the brain. c. The two pairs of small bones (greater cornua or thyrohyals, and smaller cornua or ceratohyals) which articulate with the lateral surfaces of the hyoid bone. d. The two lateral processes of the coccyx, and those of the sacrum. e. The four processes (superior and inferior cornua) of the thyroid cartilage. f. The two processes or ‘horns’ of the grey matter (which exhibits in section the form of a crescent) in each half of the spinal cord.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1701), 305. Before it [the ‘egg’] passes through the Tubes or cornua into the uterus.
1842. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M., 375. Each Lateral ventricle is divided into a central cavity, and three smaller cavities called Cornua.
1854. Owen, in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865), II. 89/2. The ossicle called ‘lesser cornu of the hyoid bone.’
1857. Bullock, trans. Cazeaux’ Midwifery, 18. Two tubercles, called the cornua of the sacrum.
1869. Huxley, Phys., xi. (ed. 3), 286. The convex sides of the cornua of the grey matter … are joined by the bridge which contains the central canal.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. iv. 123. The uterus is developed from two simple, primitive tubes, the inferior portions of which form the cornua.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 227. Each inferior cornu articulates with that outside of the cartilage.
