mammillary

English

Alternative forms

• mammillar, mamillary

Etymology

From Middle French mamillaire, or its source, Late Latin mamillaris.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmamɪləɹi/

Adjective

mammillary (comparative more mammillary, superlative most mammillary)

1. Resembling a breast or nipple in shape or form.
2. Pertaining to the nipples.
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2001, page 273:

     On the other hand, no woman who had ever borne a child (even in her own childhood) could be accepted, no matter how free she was of mammilary blemishes.

Derived terms

• intermammillary
• mammillary body
• premammillary
• retromammillary
• tuberomammillary

 

Related terms

• mammary
• mammillar
• Mammillaria

Noun

mammillary (plural mammillaries)

1. (geology, speleology) A carbonate coating formed through the precipitation of calcium carbonate onto existing rock below the water surface in cave pools.
2. (anatomy) A mammillary body, one of a pair of small round bodies, located on the undersurface of the brain, that form part of the limbic system.