Pl. crania. [med.L., a. Gr. κρᾱνίον skull.]
1. Anat., etc. a. strictly. Those bones that enclose the brain (as distinguished from those of the face and jaws); the brain-case, brain-pan, skull.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., 36/1. The bone named Cranium, or the fyrst table of bones of the heade.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 440. The skull or cranium is all that bone which compasseth the braine and after-brain like a helmet.
1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 425. In a natural state … the dura mater can be perfectly separated from the cranium.
1842. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade Mec., 15. The skull is divisible into two parts,—the cranium and the face.
b. more widely. The bones of the whole head collectively; the skull.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 119. If we examine crania which have prominent upper jaws.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 353. The Labyrinthodon is known mainly by footprints and by crania.
2. Used humorously for ‘head.’ (Cf. skull.)
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 79. Farewell simple world, If thou’lt thy Cranium mend, There is my Last and All.
a. 1734. North, Exam., II. iv. § 144 (1740), 308. This Fancy … came into the Author’s Cranium.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 54. Cracking of craniums was the rage.
