Pl. flocculi. [mod. L. flocculus, dim. of L. floccus FLOCK sb.2] A small flock or tuft.
1. A small quantity of loosely aggregated matter resembling a flock of wool, held in suspension in, or precipitated from, a fluid.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 116. The very little that was dissolved was soon precipitated again in the form of minute flocculi on exposure to the air.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. ix. § 76 (1867), 227. If we assume the first stage in nebular condensation to be the precipitation into flocculi of denser matter through a rarer medium, (a supposition both physically justified, and in harmony with certain astronomical observations,) we shall find that nebular motion is interpretable in pursuance of the above general laws.
1872. Cohen, Dis. Throat, 3. Small quantities of it [fibrin] having coagulated spontaneously into clots or flocculi.
2. Anat. A small lobe in the under surface of the cerebellum, immediately behind the middle peduncle; the subpeduncular lobe.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 49. The flocculus, or sub-peduncular lobe.
1872. Mivart, Elem. Anat., ix. 367.
