a. Also -eal. [f. SYMPHYSIS + -AL.] Of or pertaining to, situated at, or forming a symphysis. Symphysial angle: see quot. 1890.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 277/1. The anterior symphyseal or dental portion of each ramus first unites with its fellow at the symphysis.
a. 1856. H. Miller, Footpr. Creat. Notes Suite Fossils (1861), 322. The two bones of the under jaw, with their symphysial teeth.
1875. Huxley, in Encycl. Brit., I. 755/1. A short curved rod of bone, which unites with its fellow in the symphysis, and is, in fact, the ossified symphysial end of Meckel’s cartilage.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Symphyseal angle..., that between line drawn from lower incisor teeth to point of chin and the plane of lower border of inferior maxillary bone.
So Symphysian a. [ad. F. symphysien] = prec.
Symphysian angle, in Craniometry, the angle between the profile of the symphysis and the plane of the inferior border of the lower jaw.
In recent Dicts.
