vitta
[vit-uh]
- Botany. a tube or receptacle for oil, occurring in the fruits of most plants of the parsley family.
- Zoology, Botany. a streak or stripe, as of color.
Show More
Origin of vitta
1685–95; < Latin: ribbon, fillet, akin to viēre to weave together
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for vitta
Historical Examples
The vitta was at once the symbol and the talisman of chastity.
Gryll GrangeThomas Love Peacock
Vitta (plural vitt), the oil-tubes of the fruit of Umbellifer.
The Elements of BotanyAsa Gray
Cells furnished with a narrow elongated band or vitta on each side, without fenestrae.
He laid a hand unsteady with its tremor of delight and young eagerness upon the vitta and it slipped off her hair.
The City of DelightElizabeth Miller
Shall I recommend my young friend to wrap up the heads of his Vestals in a vitta?
Gryll GrangeThomas Love Peacock
vitta
- any of numerous tubelike cavities containing oil or resin that occur in the fruits of certain plants, esp of parsley and other umbellifers
- biology a band or stripe of colour
Show More
Word Origin
C17: from Latin: headband; related to viēre to plait
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012