mammillary

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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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

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Noun

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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.