1. † a. Forming part of the ‘stamina’ or original structure of the body. Obs.
1785. W. Cullen, Instit. Med., I. (ed. 3), 230. The gluten of the blood … is thus conveyed to every staminal fibre of the system.
b. Belonging to the stamina or natural constitution of a person or thing.
1798. J. Barry, Lett. to Dilettanti Soc., 32. The absurdity … of magnifying its [Art’s] accidental casual connexion with patronage, into something staminal and essential to its growth and perfection.
1805. Southey, in Robberds’ Mem. W. Taylor, II. 77. I know myself to be free from these staminal defects.
1824–9. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 3), V. 137. Where the intercourse has been so incessantly repeated as to break down the staminal strength.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., III. 738. The staminal principles or constituents of food may be further arranged as proposed by Liebig, according to the uses for which they are destined in the animal economy.
c. Constituting the ‘stamina’ or main outlines of a subject.
1845. J. Martineau, Misc. (1852), 92. An adequate exposition of his staminal ideas on this subject.
¶ d. As the trade designation of a class of prepared foods recommended as giving ‘stamina’ or bodily vigor.
1896. Daily News, 3 Nov., 2/3. The supplies remaining over from the expedition, and consisting chiefly of large quantities of provisions, vegetables, staminal foods, and pemmicans, will be sold … on Monday.
† 2. Pertaining to the fibrils of muscle. Obs.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 78. This last power also receives the names of fibrillar or staminal contractility, and tonicity.
3. Bot. Pertaining to or consisting of stamens.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., viii. (1858), 136 b. Staminal scales oblong-lanceolate acuminate.
1877. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol., 70. Each of which [flowers] consists of a calyx, a corolla, a staminal tube and a central pistil.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 426. A leaf which bears pollen-sacs may be termed a Staminal Leaf or Stamen.
