spina

[ spahy-nuh ]

noun,plural spi·nae

[spahy-nee]. /ˈspaɪ ni/. Anatomy, Zoology.

Origin of spina

1350–1400; Middle English <Latin spīna thorn, backbone; see spine

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Fetuses with spina bifida, whose spines don’t develop properly, might undergo surgery before birth at one of a small number of specialized surgical centers, for example.
This toddler is the first to have been treated for her disease before she was born | Jessica Hamzelou | November 11, 2022 | MIT Technology Review
The course was divided down the centre by a low wall, called the spina, which was adorned with various sculptures.
Architecture | Thomas Roger Smith
At the age of twenty-two, Ancilla turned a dancer and spina became a singer.
The Memoires of Casanova, Complete | Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
Along the transverse axis ran a fence (spina) separating the return course from the starting one.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 4 | Various
The sentence is very obscure, but the allusion must be to the dolphins, the figures of which were placed upon the spina.
The Letters of Cassiodorus | Cassiodorus (AKA Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator)

It seems that in a corresponding place near the other end of the spina figures of dolphins were used for the same purpose.
The Letters of Cassiodorus | Cassiodorus (AKA Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator)

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