pachydermal

English

Etymology

pachyderm +‎ -al or pachy- +‎ derm +‎ -al

Adjective

pachydermal (comparative more pachydermal, superlative most pachydermal)

1. Synonym of pachydermic
   1. (medicine) Characterized by or characteristic of pachydermy.
      • 1931, Acta Pathologica Et Microbiologica Scandinavica:

        At that point of time the skin is macroscopically seen to be slightly thickened and is in course of transition to the pachydermal stage.

      • 2011, Alan Hakim, Gavin Clunie, Inam Haq, Oxford Handbook of Rheumatology:

        Periosteal changes occur in trauma, psoriatic arthritis (above ankle), HPOA, and pachydermal periostitis.

      • 2011, Steven D. Waldman, Pain Management, page 1376:

        In addition, the stooped posture progresses to the point where ribs rest on the iliac crest, and circumferential pachydermal skin folds develop at the pelvis and ribs.

   2. Pertaining to the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata.
      • 1840, Richard Owen, Odontography:

        The anterior teeth are, however, displaced before the posterior ones are developed, although they have no vertical successors, which circumstance is also characteristic of the Elephant : the shape, the structure, and the mode of implantation of the molars of the Manatee quite accord with the pachydermal type, and herein more especially with the Dinotherium and Tapir.

      • 1876, David Page, Advanced Text-book of Geology: Descriptive and Industrial, page 516:

        As far as the teeth, jaws, and other scattered bones enable the comparative anatomist to decide, the nototherium manifests pachydermal modifications of the marsupial type ; hence the inference that' Australia (whose largest native quadruped is now the kangaroo) was, immediately preceding the current era, inhabited by a marsupial vegetable-feeder as large as the rhinoceros.

      • 1886, Julius von Haast, On Megalapteryx Hectori, a New Gigantic Species of Apterygian Bird., page 162:

        Though, owing to the size of the bird, the bones of Megalapteryx are somewhat more massive than those of Apteryx, nevertheless they are easily distinguished by their elegant form from those of the Dinornithidae, which, even the most slender forms, have all a more pachydermal type than this new species.

   3. Pertaining to or involving elephants.
      • 1996, Rita Ringis, Elephants of Thailand in Myth, Art, and Reality, page 44:

        Thai veterinarians interviewed during the course of this research particularly commented on pachydermal aversion to their presence.

      • 2005, David Kettle, Elephant Gnosis, page 80:

        Elephants will assist you, in ways you can't imagine, to remember the good times. I am there never to forget. They let the good times roll and rumble. They are, as it were, pachydermal rivets, holding fast the compromised fabric of this futile, unbolted, realm.

      • 2012, Tim Moore, You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain:

        Thus did my landlady see me off into the grey morning, replete with fried bread and the blunt logistics of her pachydermal mania ('Got first twenty-nine years back. Stopped counting at three and half thousand. Clean buggers with hairdryer.')

   4. Massive; elephantine.
      • 2004, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe Jr., Paa: a Tribute, page 117:

        […] which was why I was banished to the backyard while those with verbal-wallets bursting at seams, with pachydermal crock, did a sumptuous roast on the old lady's fears and pains […]

      • 2012, Craig Packer, Into Africa:

        The largest kopje bulges organically out of the ground, pachydermal, pregnant, prodigious, a bastion of permanence in a land of restless change.

      • 2014, M.F. Dail, Limbodeswill’s Wain, page 11:

        While Epoi has no doubts about his own sanity, there are ten Tropoi or modes of scepticism surrounding pachydermal self-assurance.

2. Grainy.
   • 1983, Lindbergia - Volumes 9-10, page 108:

     The pachydermal exothecial cells of the capsule that are prevalent in rheophytes are lacking.

   • 1985, George A. M. Scott, Southern Australian Liverworts, page 42:

     The calyptra, c. 3 mm tall, is rough with grain-like (pachydermal) cells, scattered over the upper half and concentrated into a loose cluster at the apex.

   • 1989, Tasmania. Geological Survey, Explanatory Report, One Mile Geological Map Series:

     The overlying fine-grained to medium-grained sandstone includes the characteristic mottled lithology and is several metres thick, often with pachydermal jointing.