Wiktionary

annulus

English edit

WOTD – 14 October 2023

Etymology edit

 
A drawing of a transverse section through a heart, showing the annuli (sense 2) or fibrous rings around the valve openings.
 
An annulus (sense 3) of the Sun seen from Chiba, Japan, during an annular eclipse on 21 May 2012.
 
The annulus (sense 4.1) on the tip of the sporangium of the bonfire moss (Funaria hygrometrica)
 
An annulus (sense 4.2) on the stalk of a spectacular rustgill mushroom (Gymnopilus junonius).
 
A geometric annulus (sense 5.1).
 
In this diagram of an oil well, drilling fluid is pumped down the drill string (“a column of drill pipe”) (purple) and circulates back up the annulus (sense 6; yellow), which is the space between the drill string and the casing or hole. This transmits the fluid and torque to the drill bit.

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ānnulus, a misspelling of Latin ānulus (“ring, especially one worn on a finger”), from ānus (“ring”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eh₂no- (“ring”)) + -ulus (diminutive suffix).[1]

The plural form annuli is a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ānnulī.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

annulus (plural annuluses or annuli)

  1. A ring- or donut-shaped area or structure.
    Hyponym: torus
  3. (anatomy) A ring of fibrous tissue; specifically (cardiology), such a ring around an opening of a heart valve, to which the valve leaflets and muscle fibres of the atria and ventricles are attached; an annulus fibrosus cordis.
  5. (astronomy) A ring of light in a celestial body, especially when caused by an annular eclipse (for example, when the Sun and Moon are in line with the Earth, but the Moon does not completely cover the Sun's disc).
  6. (biology)
    2. (botany) A structure surrounding a sporangium (or part of it) which shrinks and causes it to rupture for spore dispersal; specifically, in a fern: a structure around about two-thirds of the sporangium consisting of differentially thick-walled cells which dry and distort the sporangium; and in a moss: a complete ring of cells around the tip of the sporangium which dissolves to cause the tip to detach.
    4. (mycology) The membranous remnants of a partial veil which leaves a ring on the stem of a mushroom.
  7. (mathematics)
    2. (geometry) The region in a plane between two concentric circles of different radii.
    3. (topology) Any topological space homeomorphic to the region in a plane between two concentric circles of different radii.
      Synonym: cylinder
  9. (technology) In a well such as an oil well or water well: the space between a pipe or tube and any pipe, tube, casing, or sides of a hole surrounding it.
    • 1950 September, “Notes and News: Pneumatic Buffer Stop, E.R.”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 642:
      Pressure balance is obtained by the air pressure in the cylinder operating on a supplementary piston in the buffer piston head, transmitting pressure to a small quantity of oil which is ported to an annulus between the buffer piston seals and the cylinder wall, so that the seal is always under opposing pressures; oil on one side and air on the other.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

ring- or donut-shaped area or structure

References edit

  1. ^ Compare “annulus, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “annulus, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading edit

Latin edit

Etymology edit

From ānus (“ring”) +‎ -ulus.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

ānnulus m (genitive ānnulī); second declension

  1. Alternative form of ānulus

Declension edit

Second-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative ānnulus ānnulī
Genitive ānnulī ānnulōrum
Dative ānnulō ānnulīs
Accusative ānnulum ānnulōs
Ablative ānnulō ānnulīs
Vocative ānnule ānnulī

Descendants edit

References edit

  • annulus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • “annulus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “annulus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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