intermural

English

Etymology

From Latin intermūrālis. By surface analysis, inter- +‎ mural.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪntɚˈmjuːɹəl/

Adjective

intermural (not comparable)

1. Between walls; enclosed by walls.
   • 1854, Kenelm Henry Digby, Compitum: Or, The Meeting of the Ways at the Catholic Church, page 570:

     Turn from this picture to a vault or intermural yard, to the black mould, the coarse , rank, poisonous grass and nettles, the decayed monuments, and the dark shadows of the dismal walls, where the sunshine never sleeps, but where death and gloom ever dwell together.

   • 1911, Robert Allbut, “The Burial Ground in Bleak House”, in The Dickensian, volume 8, page 161:

     This intermural graveyard was attached to the Church of St. Mary-le-Strand, and has been closed for many years.

   • 2018, Ian Hodder, Religion, History, and Place in the Origin of Settled Life:

     These buildings feature larger numbers of intermural burials and multiple rebuild phases that have been referred to as “history houses,” domestic buildings in which Çatalhöyük people actively accumulated more extensive transcendent knowledge and symbolic capital.

   • 2020, David Loades, Reader's Guide to British History:

     In undertaking the monumental task of summarizing and synthesizing the historical, archaeological, and onomastic scholarship of the previous century, Duncan establishes the basis for subsequent debate, enunciates the evidenciary difficulties involved, and, in disjointed sections, sketches in general terms the political, social, and ecclesiastical history of the intermural British "kingdoms" from their emergence from Romanitas to their disappearance.

2. Occurring within the walls or boundaries of an organ or other biological structure.
   • 1892, Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, page 216:

     In Favosites and allied genera, the maximum size of the corallites is soon reached, and the expansion of the coral is mainly derived from intermural growth.

   • 1900 January 11, Mary Dixon Jones, “The Fourth Hitherto Undescribed Disease of the Ovary— Colloid Degeneration”, in British Gynaecological Journal, volume 22, page 570:

     In some cases, when I have removed the uterine appendages for intermural fibroid tumours, I have found colloid degeneration of the ovary, and in other cases of intermural fibroid there was no colloid degeneration.

   • 1903, Ray Smith Bassler, The Structural Features of the Bryozoan Genus Homotrypa, with Descriptions of Species from the Cincinnatian Group, page 570:

     Under certain conditions tangential sections indicate that the zoœcial walls and the intermural space are seemingly pierced by communication pores or connecting foramina.

   • 2012, A.D. Johnson, The Oviduct and its Functions, page 35:

     There are a number of low, longitudinal or circular, oviducal, mucosal folds in the intermural segment of the tube which disappear before reaching the oviducal opening at the apex of the papilla.

3. Local to an exhibit or exhibition.
   • 1894, Joe Vincent Meigs, True Rapid Transit: How it May be Achieved, page 16:

     Mr. W. E. Baker, the electrical egineer who designed, built, and operated the intermural road, replied "that the power stations should be so placed that the current of electricity would be transmitted five miles only, the loss being proportional to the distance – thus there would be two power houses, five miles from the ends of the route, transmitting currents two ways; that the intermural motor cars had four parallel axles to each, of which 150 h.p. was attached, or 600 h.p. in all – the cost of these motor cars each was $10,000 for the electrical application – and that the same power would be required for the proposed trains.

   • 1904 May 1, “World's Fair Notes”, in Gardening, volume 12, page 636:

     The plants in the wild flower garden near the Agriculture building are making good growth and should attract much attention throughout the season. Get off at station 10 on the intermural railroad for the Horticulture building.

4. In house; internal to an organization.
   • 1988, Carl C. Wilson, Forest Fire Laboratory at Riverside and Fire Research in California, page 20:

     During the past 5 or 6 years, on the other hand, intermural research has tended to produce more publishable information.

   • 1991, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, NIH Reauthorization and Protection of Health Facilities, page 287:

     In addition, as you know, environmental tobacco smoke in studies both sponsored by the National Cancer Institute as well as intermural studies, have shown that this contributes to lung cancer, both primarily in women, but in both sexes.

   • 1991, New Research on Aging, page 13:

     The intermural research program at the Gerontology Research Center has a very important role in defining aging and aging research.

   • 2016, Rosa Lopez de D'Amico, Tansin Benn, Gertrud Pfister, Women and Sport in Latin America:

     Present at every level of the curriculum, the physical education programme is structured in three programme phases: academic, intermural, interscholastic.

5. Involving competition between institutions, especially sports competitions.
   • 1963, George Hjelte, Jay Sanford Shivers, Public Administration of Park and Recreational Services, page 236:

     All recreational agencies must decide whether their own controlled program of activities shall be conducted on an intermural or intramural basis.

   • 2002, Clayton Gingerich, Effective Education: A Prescription for Renewing Our Schools, page 156:

     Since sports are so ingrained in the fabric of the public schools, it may not be realistic to expect educators to allow some other organization to plan and administer all intermural competition.

   • 2017, Alan Dickson, Love, Coach:

     That winter a couple of former Mishawaka High athletes and I formed an Intermural Basketball team: Denny Baldwin (a scholarship QB in football there and a great high school basketball player), and Mike Hughes (high school football standout) became great friends and we had a lot of fun as we dominated their Intermural Basketball League.

6. (art) Originating as street art but being curated and displayed in a gallery or museum.
   • 2010, Betty Jean Craige, Relativism in the Arts, page 12:

     Balakian continues the theological metaphor in defining the artwork itself as "sacred," "a system of symbolization of which the correspondences are strictly intramural or self-referential to start and become intermural only when other artists accept the signal-making character of the work."

   • 2016, Konstantinos Avramidis, Myrto Tsilimpounidi, Graffiti and Street Art, page 112:

     Intermural Art is thus an art venturing beyond these previous designations, venturing beyond and between the gaps in these practices. It is an art exploring the space between the street and the studio, between Graffiti and the gallery. It is an art exploring the vibrancy of the threshold, the space in between the walls.

   • 2020, Rafael Schacter, “Curating the intermural: graffiti in the museum 2008-18”, in Roger Sansi, editor, The Anthropologist as Curator, page 168:

     What is key to intermural art is thus its liminal position between inside and out.

Noun

intermural (plural intermurals)

1. A (usually sport) competition between teams from separate organizations.
   • 1944, The Utah Juniper, page 8:

     The fellows worked hard in the Intermurals under Joe Jackson's leadership, but the loss of some good men at the wrong time hurt. The Club ended the year in third place.

   • 2006, Karen Nakamura, Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity, page 67:

     They were then very surprised when they found out that, as students at a school for the deaf, they were not able to play in the prefectural intermurals against other schools.

   • 2011, Marshal Yong, Steve Krakauer, Syracuse University 2012:

     Intermurals and club sports are also a big part of campus life.

   • 2011, Jay Shivers, Programming Recreational Services, page 251:

     Intermurals, or competition between teams from different facilities, occur when schedules are developed that enable participants to engage peers outside of the local playground or center.

2. A competition between teams from within the same organization.
   • 1967, Marjorie Ewing Aghassi, Little Legislatures, page 375:

     Theoretically each team is supposed to fight as hard as possible for its side in the congressional intermurals .

   • 1990, Drug Information & Strategy Clearinghouse (U.S.), United States. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Office for Drug-Free Neighborhoods, Home front:

     In addition to these intermurals, a girls' basketball program teaches the fundamentals of the sport.

   • 1994, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies, Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations, Fiscal Year 1995, 103d Congress, Second Session, H.R. 4603, page 787:

     As you know, we have had some ongoing intermurals relative to Radio Marti and TV Marti, and there has been a vanguard of opposition in the minority because we have had to put this to a vote in both Houses from time to time.

   • 1996, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Banking and Financial Services. Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, Oversight Hearing on the Federal Home Loan Bank System, page 69:

     Second , you have to understand, again, the point I tried to make was that it creates intermurals that ultimately are bad for the system .

3. An intermural yard; a walled garden.
   • 1993, Janina Kościałkowska, Beech Boat, page 41:

     The back wall of the workshop was taken up by a glass door, and behind it lay a small stone-paved garden, one of the tiny and fortuitous intermurals whose charm is London's secret.

Usage notes

There is a great deal of overlap between the terms intermural and intramural. When both terms are used by the same author, intermural refers to competition between organizations, while intramural refers to competition within an organization. However, intermural is also often used as a synonym of intramural.

Related terms

• intermure (verb)

Further reading

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Intermu·ral, a.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volumes V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 408, column 3.