Pl. -æ, -as. [L. tænia, a. Gr. ταινία a band, fillet, ribbon.]
1. Archæol. A headband, ribbon, or fillet.
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 340 (ed. 2), 406. The twisted fillet of the athletes and of Hercules consists of several tæniæ of different colours.
1857. Birch, Anc. Pottery (1858), I. 412. A wreath or branch, which is exchanged on the later vases for the tainia or fillet.
2. Arch. In the Doric order, A band separating the architrave from the frieze. (So in Vitruvius.)
1563. Shute, Archit., C j b. The Architraue … ye shal deuide into 6. parts wherof Tenia, to be the sixte part.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Tænia … is a Member of the Dorick Capital, which resembles the Shape of a square Fillet.
1817–48. Rickman, Archit. (ed. 5), 32. The fillet of the tenia of the architrave is very nearly as large as the ogee under it.
3. Surg. A long narrow ribbon used as a ligature.
1882. in Ogilvie (Annandale).
4. Anat. A ribbon-like structure; applied esp. to the bands of white nervous matter in the brain and the longitudinal muscles of the colon.
1882. Ogilvie (Annandale), Tænia hippocampi, in anat. the plaited edges of the processes of the fornix.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Tænia, a tape; in anatomy applied to tape- or band-like structures.
5. Zool. A tapeworm [so in L.]; spec. a genus of cestoid worms, including the common tapeworm. Also fig.
[1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2). Tænia, broad Worms.]
1706. Phillips, Tænia.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Tape-worm, A fragment of the jointed tænia, sometimes voided … in separate pieces.
1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 121/1. The species of Tænia infesting the intestines of other animals are extremely numerous.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. II. 60. The Tænias and similar animals.
1869. Browning, Ring & Bk., XI. 1606. Unbrokenly lay bare Each taenia that had sucked me dry of juice.
6. Comb. Tænia-chain, the whole series, or a number of the consecutive joints of a tapeworm; tænia-head, the scolex of a tapeworm, the worm itself without the proglottides or deutoscolices.
1878. Bell, Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 130. A process of gemmation, the product of which is the Tænia-chain.
Hence Tænian a., pertaining to tapeworms; Tæniate a., tænioid, tæniiform.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 1114. Conditions which favour the entrance of the tænian ova into man or the domestic herbivora.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tæniatus … teniate.
1891. Cent. Dict., Tæniate.
