Definition of "funiculus" [‖Fu•nic•u•lus]

• Anatomy A slender cordlike strand or band, especially: (noun)
• Anatomy A bundle of nerve fibers in a nerve trunk. (noun)
• Anatomy One of three major divisions of white matter in the spinal cord, consisting of fasciculi. (noun)
• Anatomy The umbilical cord. (noun)
• Botany A stalk connecting an ovule or a seed with the placenta. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Linus suggested that Nature, abhorring a vacuum, caused the tube or finger to give off an invisible entity which he called funiculus, being Latin for 'little rope', which closed up the space and prevented a vacuum."
• "A small bundle of fibers, enclosed in a tubular sheath, is called a funiculus; if the nerve is of small size, it may consist only of a single funiculus; but if large, the funiculi are collected together into larger bundles or fasciculi, which are bound together in a common membranous investment."
• "Hic est funiculus triplex qui difficilè rumpitur, quem nobis a patria nostra in hunc carcerem usque dimissum firmiter, obsecro, teneamus: ut ipse nos sublevet, ipse nos trahat et pertrahat usque ad conspectum gloriæ magni Dei: qui est benedictus in sæcula."