Anat. Also 7 epididimis, -damies. [a. Gr. ἐπιδιδυμίς, f. ἐπί upon + δίδυμοι testicles.] ‘A long, narrow structure attached to the posterior border of the adjoining outer surface of the testicle, and consisting chiefly of coils of the efferent duct, which emerge from it as the vas deferens’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., III. iii. (1612), G 2 b. She must feele his Epididimis, Where is the Doxie?
a. 1652. Brome, Court Beggar, IV. iii. To save his Epididamies.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. 480. Animalcules … being never found, unless in the cellules producing them, in the epididymis, the vas deferens and the vesicles.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 134. A convoluted epididymis-like mass of a yellowish colour.
Hence Epididymitis, Path. [see -ITIS], inflammation of the epididymis.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 991/1. A lad … affected with epididymitis.
1874. Van Buren, Dis. Genit. Org., 63. In this way epididymitis may sometimes be averted.
