Zool. Also 8 encrinos. [mod.L., f. Gr. ἐν in + κρίνον lily. The word was invented by Harenberg (1729) as a name for a fossil that two years before he had proposed to call a ‘stone lily.’]
1. † A name formerly applied generally to fossil crinoids; = ENCRINITE (obs.). b. Now the name of a particular (extinct) genus of crinoids, the type of the family Encrinidæ.
1762. [see 2].
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 181. To convert an Encrinus into an animal capable of locomotion.
1851. Richardson, Geol., viii. 228. In encrinus, it is composed of different sized circular plates.
† 2. Applied to certain extant animals that were supposed to resemble the fossil encrinus: a. The Pennatula Encrinus of Linnæus = the mod. genus Umbellula (class Anthozoa, sub-kingdom Cœlenterata). b. A crinoid described by Ellis as found on the coast of Barbadoes. Obs.
1762. Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LII. 358. As it comes nearest to the fossils called encrini,… I shall keep to that name, and call it Encrinus.
1788. Chambers’ Cycl. (Rees), Encrinos.
1819. Rees, Cycl., Encrinus.
