combining form of BASE, BASIS, forming the first element of many adjs. in Phys., in sense of ‘pertaining to, situated at, or forming, the base of’; e.g., basibranchial, -cranial, -facial, -hyal, -occipital, -radial, -rostral, -sphenoid(al, -temporal, -vertebral, pertaining to, situated at, or forming, the base or posterior part of the branchial arch (in fishes), the skull, the face, the hyoid bone, the occiput, the ray or radius, the beak, the sphenoid bone, the temples, the vertebræ. These are often used ellipt.; e.g., the basihyal (bone).
1872. Mivart, Anat., 477. The branchial arches are attached to a … series of pieces termed basi-branchials.
1866. Huxley, Preh. Rem. Caithn., 99. The basi-cranial line is from the anterior margin of the foramen magnum to the fronto-nasal suture. Ibid. (1863), Man’s Place Nat., iii. 149. The basifacial axis … drawn through the axis of the face, between the bones called ethmoid and vomer.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 1145/2. The basi-hyal is generally elongated proportionately to the shape of the tongue. Ibid., 1322/1. The fissure that … separates the basi-occipital bone from the ex-occipitals.
1880. Carpenter, in Jrnl. Linn. Soc., XV. 208. The basiradial suture is an obtuse angle.
1837. Macgillivray, Hist. Brit. Birds, III. 643. Its basirostral bristles.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 17. The junction of the basisphenoid to the basioccipital. Ibid. The basitemporals form a second floor to the cranium.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 1410/1. The basi-vertebral veins.
