Definition of "uncus" [un•cus]

• Biology A hook-shaped part or process. (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.

• "Sense of smell is projected in uncus [ "uncus" means hook] and hippocampus which are also parts of temporal lobe on medial aspect."
• "The parts sound comically ominous--the amygdala, the hippocampus, the uncus."
• "At I 313-16, Lucretius, discussing the invisible wearing away of substances, says 'stilicidi casus _lapidem_ cauat, uncus aratri/_ferreus_ occulte decrescit uomer in aruis,/strataque iam uolgi pedibus detrita uiarum/saxea conspicimus'."