[ad. L. stellātus, f. stella star: see -ATE2.] A. adj.
1. Of the sky: Studded with stars. poet.
c. 1500. Kennedy, Poems (Schipper), iv. 27. Þe hevyne stellat, planetis, montanis and fellis, War fair perchiament, and all as Virgillis dyte.
† 2. Pertaining to or proceeding from the stars.
1658. Franck, North. Mem., Ded. Virtuosos (1694), p. xi. There you may see the Operation of Elements and stellate Influences.
3. Star-shaped; arranged or grouped in the form of a conventional star or stars; (chiefly in scientific use) radiating from a center like the rays of a star.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 228. The Stellate Raie is lesse hard … than the Smooth.
1661. Boyle, Cert. Physiol. Ess. (1669), 56. Several Stellate Regulusses of both Antimony and Mars.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Stellate Plants, are by the Botanists called such Plants as have their Leaves growing on the Stalks at certain Intervals or Distances, in the form of a Radiant Star.
1752. trans. Heister’s Surg. (1768), II. 363, marg. The Stellate Bandage.
1755. Phil. Trans., XLIX. 17. The uniform stellate form of snow is very remarkable.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., I. ii. 40. In many plants the hairs grow in clusters,… and are occasionally united at their base: such are called stellate.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 272. The Sulphate … crystallizes in stellate groups of silky needles.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 111. In their form the Star-fishes differ considerably, though in most the figure is markedly stellate.
1876. Dunglison, Med. Lex., Stellate Ligament, a name given to the anterior costo-vertebral ligament, from its shape.
1880. Sollas, in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. V. V. 257. The stellate spicules … are produced within the interior of cells.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 300. The patches, examined microscopically, are found to consist of embryonic round cells, spindle and stellate cells arranged in layers.
b. Comb.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 32. Draba muralis, suberect or prostrate, stellate-hispid.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 130. Stellate-branched fibres occur in the foliage-leaf of Sciadopitys.
B. sb. A stellate sponge-spicule.
1880. Sollas, in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. V. V. 132. Stelletta.… The skeleton consists of long-shafted spicules, minute hair-like spicules, and stellates. Ibid. (1887), in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 417/2. (Sponge) By reduction of the spire the spiraster passes into the stellate or aster.
Hence Stellately adv.
1847. W. E. Steele, Field Bot., 106. Leaves plane, lanceolate, stellately hairy.
1848. Dana, Zooph., 283. Surface lamellostriate, and usually stellately so, stars not circumscribed.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 58. One may, for instance, call the flat horizontal appendages of the Elæagneæ,… stellately branched, multicellular hairs.
