a. Gr. σφηνο-, combining form of σφήν wedge, employed in a number of scientific terms.
1. Anat. In adjs. that designate something pertaining to the sphenoid bone together with the part specified by the second element of the compound, as Spheno-basilar, -basilic, -frontal, -malar, -maxillary, -occipital, -orbital, -palatine, -parietal, -temporal.
Some of these represent Latin formations, as sphenopalatinus, -pharyngæus, in use from at least the 17th cent. Cf. also F. sphénobasilaire, -maxillaire, -palatin, etc.
1849. Craig, *Spheno-basilar.
1904. Duckworth, Stud. Anthropol. Laborat., 213. The spheno-basilar suture.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 486. Premature synostosis of the *spheno-basilic suture.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 280. Of this kind are the *spheno-frontal sutures.
1884. J. E. Lee, trans. Römer’s Bone Caves of Ojcow, 29. A synostosis of the spheno-frontal and the lower part of the coronal sutures.
1855. Holden, Hum. Osteol., 94. Other short sutures, such as the *‘spheno-malar,’ ‘spheno-parietal,’ ‘zygomatic,’… speak for themselves.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 227. The inferior orbitary, or *sphenomaxillary fissure.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 107. The Spheno-maxillary Fossa … is formed by the sphenoid bone behind, the upper maxillary bone before, and by the palate bone to the inside.
1840. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M. (1842), 29. The sphenoid, in conjunction with the occipital, was described … as a single bone, under the name of *spheno-occipital.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 158/1. The round aperture … is confounded with the *spheno-orbital slit.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 107. The *spheno-palatine hole.
1858. H. Gray, Anat., 489. The Spheno-Palatine Ganglion (Meckel’s), the largest of the cranial ganglia.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 86. The spheno-palatine foramen opens into the nasal cavity.
1831. *Spheno-parietal [see below].
1884. J. E. Lee, trans. Römer’s Bone Caves of Ojcow, 29. The spheno parietal suture … is also in part completely obliterated.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 89. It is traversed by various sutures, the coronal, the sphenoidal, the *spheno-temporal, the spheno-parietal, and the squamous.
2. In names of minerals, as Sphenoclase (see quots.), or of genera of animals or plants, as Sphenodon, Sphenophyllum, Sphenopteris.
Webster (1864) also gives ‘Sphe·nogram, a cuneiform or arrow-headed character,’ to which the Imp. Dict. (1882) adds spheno·grapher, gra·phic, -graphist, -graphy.
1868–77. Watts, Dict. Chem., V. 399. *Sphenoclase. A mineral occurring in parallel layers … in a bluish granular limestone at Gjellebäck in Norway.
1896. Chester, Dict. Min., Sphenoclase, a questionable silicate of calcium, etc., of yellowish color.
1878. Bell, Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 440. This arrangement obtains also in some Saurii (*Sphenodon).
c. 1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 290. The Tuatera, or Hatteria, or the Sphenodon Lizard. Ibid., 341. The remarkable Lizard from New Zealand—the Tuatera, or Sphenodon.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 294/1. *Sphenophyllum … has broad wedge-shaped leaves, the veins of which are forked.
1858. Baird, Cycl. Nat. Sci., 509/2. Sphenophyllum, a genus of fossil plants peculiar to the coal measures and the transition formations.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 292/2. *Sphenopteris has twice or thrice pinnatifid leaves. Ibid. (1842), XXII. 338/2. Sphenopteris, a genus of fossil ferns…. They are all coal-measure plants.
1851. Mantell, Petrifactions, i. § 2. 32. The other characteristic Wealden plant is the Sphenopteris (S. Mantelli), or wedge-leaf fern.
