a. and (sb.). [Cf. F. sous-dorsal.]
A. adj. 1. [SUB- 1 a.] Pertaining to the part situated at the bottom of the back (i.e., the posteriors). nonce-use.
1800. in Spirit Publ. Jrnls., IV. 36. The vigorous posts which sustain the enormous subdorsal promontory of Lord G. Ibid., 371. He has ordered the dimensions of the subdorsal basis of each of the new scholars to be taken.
2. Zool. [SUB- 11, 20 d.] Somewhat or almost dorsal; situated near the back.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 522/1. Fins advanced,… distant and subdorsal.
1852. Dana, Crust., I. 53. The feet of the two posterior pairs [of legs] are short and subdorsal.
B. sb. A subdorsal fin.
1856. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., xiii. 230. The dorsals differing from the sub-dorsals, and these again from the pectorals.
Hence Subdorsally adv., in a subdorsal position.
1902. Proc. Zool. Soc., II. 304. On 3rd. somite a pair of black ‘eye spots’ surrounded by a white iris, subdorsally.
