a. and sb. Anat. and Zool. [ad. Gr. συμπλεκτικός twining or plaiting together, copulative, f. σύν SYM- + πλέκειν to twine, plait, weave: see -IC.] a. adj. Epithet of a bone of the suspensorium in the skull of fishes, between the hyomandibular and the quadrate bones. b. sb. The symplectic bone.

1

1839–47.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., III. 833/1. The symplectic bones seem to be peculiar to Fishes.

2

1870.  Rolleston, Anim. Life, 44. The synchondrosis between the hyomandibular and the symplectic.

3

1880.  Günther, Fishes, 55. The mesotympanic or symplectic appears as a styliform prolongation of the lower part of the hyomandibular.

4