Pl. -æ. [L.] The awn or beard (in L. also the whole ear) of grain and grasses; hence used of similar bristle-like processes, as the fibrils which fringe the convex edge of a fish’s gills, etc.
1691. Ray, Creation (1701), 8. The Aristæ or radii of a fish’s gills.
1875. Houghton, Sk. Brit. Ins., 112. The basal joints of the arista.
