a. Chiefly in scientific use. [ad. L. lanceolātus, f. lanceola small lance; in med.L. lancet, dim. of lancea LANCE sb.] Resembling a spear-head in shape; narrow and tapering to each end.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., III. v. (1765), 176. Lanceolate, Spear-shaped; when the figure is oblong, narrowing gradually at each End towards the Extremity.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxii. 313. Toadflax has linear leaves inclining to lanceolate.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., iv. (1858), 26. Wood Anemone.… Leaflets lanceolate, lobed, and cut.
1851–6. Woodward, Mollusca, 69. Loligo vulgaris:… Pen lanceolate, with the shaft produced in front.
1869. Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Reptiles & Birds, ii. 46. The broad, flat, and lanceolate form of head is exemplified in certain Tree Snakes.
¶ b. Used for ‘lancet-shaped.’
1883. Ellice Hopkins, in Century Mag., April, 821/1. The long, shapeless splits in the walls became the delicate lanceolate windows.
c. Comb., signifying ‘lanceolate and …,’ ‘between lanceolate and …,’ as lanceolate-acute, -linear, -subulate adjs.; also in quasi-Lat. form lanceolato-, as lanceolato-hastate, -subulate adjs.
1806. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot., 184. L[eaves] lanceolato-hastate.
1836. Loudon, Encycl. Plants, 897. Sphagnum cuspidatum … Leaves lanceolato-subulate lax.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., vi. (1858), 82. Leaves green, smooth, lanceolate-linear.
1847. W. E. Steele, Field Bot., 73. Sep[als] lanceolate-acute.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 240. Sepals slender lanceolate-subulate.
Hence Lanceolately adv., in a lanceolate shape. Also Lanceolation, the property of being lanceolate (in recent Dicts.).
1872. H. C. Wood, Fresh-Water Algæ, 109. [Closterium] Narrowly lanceolately-fusiform.
