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

Etymology

Origin of echinus

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

echinus echini

Let the height of the capital be divided into three parts, of which one will form the abacus with its cymatium, the second the echinus with its annulets, and the third the necking.

From The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

If I was to bend round the rays of the starfish and fill up the interior, I could produce an animal very like the echinus.

From Ernest Bracebridge School Days by William I. Thomas

Some have only the Latin plural, which usually changes us to i; as, alumnus, alumni; androgynus, androgyni; calculus, calculi; dracunculus, dracunculi; echinus, echini; magus, magi.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

These shafts, as also the echinus moulding of the capitals, are richly carved with the chevron and spirals, probably copied from the brass sheathing of wood columns and doorways referred to by Homer.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 4 "Aram, Eugene" to "Arcueil" by Various

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

I found shells embedded in limestone varying considerably in its hardness being sometimes very friable and the surface in some places presenting innumerable fragments of corallines, with pectens, spatangi, echini, ostrea and foraminifera.

From Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2 by Thomas Mitchell

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

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

Among the molluscs and zoophytes, I found in the meshes of the net several species of alcyonarians, echini, hammers, spurs, dials, cerites, and hyalleae.

From Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

Superb specimens were secured,—large boulders crowded with colossal shells and perfectly preserved echini.

From Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence by Louis Agassiz