[ad. L. tūberculum small swelling, boil, pimple, dim. of tūber, TUBER2. Cf. obs. F. tubercle (Cotgr., 1611).] A small tuber or body resembling a tuber.
1. Anat. and Zool. A small rounded projection or protuberance, as on a bone, or on the surface of the body in various animals.
Often with defining word, as the specific name of such a structure: e.g., conoid, cuneiform, genial, laminated, madreporic, optic, scalene [etc.] tubercle: see the adjs.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, I. 17. To this Tubercle they [‘bones’ of the larynx] are inarticulated and knit.
1747. Gentl. Mag., March, 122/2. These creatures have several rows of tubercles on their bodies.
1846. Brittan, trans. Malgaigne’s Man. Oper. Surg., 133. A more or less projecting tubercle on the first rib, which gives attachment to the anterior scalenus.
1880. Barwell, Aneurism, iii. 29. Chassaignac’s tubercle, the transverse process of the fifth cervical vertebra.
2. Path. A small firm rounded swelling or nodule on the surface of the body or in a part or organ; spec. a mass of granulation-cells characteristic of tuberculosis; transf. the disease tuberculosis.
Miliary tubercle: see MILIARY 1.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 355. The tubercles of the lungs.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 52. A Balsamick Decoction … dissipates Crude Tubercles.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs. Tumours, 149. The ulcerated surface may heal, and leave an indurated knob or tubercle in the affected part.
1818. Art Preserv. Feet, 3. The corn is technically termed ‘clavus pedum,’ and considered as a tubercle without organization, proceeding from the substance of the epidermis, and originating in the tightness of shoes or boots.
1859. J. Tomes, Dental Surg. (1873), 51. Tubercle does not appear to interfere with the progress of dentition.
1876. Bristowe, The. & Pract. Med. (1878), 67. It is a … characteristic of tubercle that its specific cells very rapidly fall into degeneration.
3. Bot. a. A small tuber, or a root-growth resembling a tuber, as in many orchids. b. A small wart-like swelling or protuberance on a plant.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Tuber, or Tubercle, in botany, a kind of round turgid root.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 349. A particular species … has large prickles growing on round tubercles.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 498. Fucus,… whose seeds are collected together in tubercles or swellings, of various forms and sizes.
1880. Gray, Struct. Bot., iii. § 3 (ed. 6), 60. Tubercles … are of a mixed … character between tubers and tuberous roots.
4. attrib. and Comb., as tubercle-like, -infected adjs.; tubercle-bacillus, the species of bacillus which causes tuberculosis (also attrib.).
1866. Tate, Brit. Mollusks, iv. 165. A tubercle-like tooth [in a shell].
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v. Tubercle, Tubercle-bacillus.
1897. Daily News, 1 April, 3/4. Both assume the so-called tubercle-bacillus tint.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 3 Nov., 9/2. If the Council can prevent the sale of tubercle-infected milk.
1913. Times, 6 Aug., 8/4. Microscopical examination of milk and tubercle bacillus by analytical methods.
