echinus

American  

[ih-kahy-nuhs] / ɪˈkaɪ nəs /

noun

• echini
  plural

1. any sea urchin of the genus Echinus.

2. Architecture.

   1. an ovolo molding, especially one having an outline with several radii or one carved with an egg-and-dart pattern.

   2. the prominent circular molding supporting the abacus of a Doric or Tuscan capital.

   3. Also called cymatium. the circular molding, usually carved with an egg-and-dart pattern, forming part of an Ionic capital between the volutes and under the balteus.

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echinus British  

/ ɪˈkaɪnəs /

noun

1. architect an ovolo moulding between the shaft and the abacus of a Doric column

2. any of the sea urchins of the genus Echinus, such as E. esculentus ( edible sea urchin ) of the Mediterranean

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• echini
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of echinus

1325–75; Middle English < Latin < Greek echînos hedgehog, sea urchin

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

echinus echini

The projection of the echinus beyond the fillet of the abacus should be equal to the size of the eye.

From The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

Yet the echinus can have, at the best, none but the most distant genetic relationship with the Polyzoa.

From On the Genesis of Species by St. George Mivart

Above the echinus, which is circular, like the shaft, comes the highest member—the abacus, a square stout slab of marble, which completes the capital of the column.

From Architecture Classic and Early Christian by T. Roger (Thomas Roger) Smith

Fragment of the capital of one of the Doric columns of the pronaos or opisthodomos, including the lower part of the echinus, and the upper part of the flutings.

From A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Volume I (of 2) by A. H. Smith

This, though a less rational and expressive form for its particular office than is the echinus of the Doric cap, is a far more perfect symbol of the feminine element in nature.

From The Beautiful Necessity Seven Essays on Theosophy and Architecture by Claude Fayette Bragdon

In the same stone the claws of crabs, fragments of echini, and other signs of a neighbouring beach, are observed.

From The Student's Elements of Geology by Sir Charles Lyell

“See, the whole beach is covered with beautiful shells, and there may be sea anemones and echini, and star-fish, and all sorts of marine creatures.”

From Dick Cheveley His Adventures and Misadventures by William H. C. Groome

Those of starfishes have two movable jaws, or blades, and are usually nearly, or quite, sessile; those of echini usually have three jaws and a pedicel.

From The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Section P and Q by Project Gutenberg

I don't think you come behind him of whose exquisite Skill the Satyrist says, Ostrea callebat primo deprendere morsu, Et semel aspecti dicebat littus echini.

From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Desiderius Erasmus

Its proper diet consists of the smaller marine animals, such as crabs, echini, and molluscs, alive or dead, fish and carrion.

From British Birds in their Haunts by Rev. C. A. Johns

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