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.
1839–47. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., III. 833/1. The symplectic bones seem to be peculiar to Fishes.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 44. The synchondrosis between the hyomandibular and the symplectic.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 55. The mesotympanic or symplectic appears as a styliform prolongation of the lower part of the hyomandibular.
