villus

English

Abnormal blood cells with villi on the surface

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin villus (“shaggy hair”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪləs/
• Rhymes: -ɪləs

Noun

villus (plural villi)

1. (biology) A small projection from a membrane, particularly those found in the mucous membranes of the intestines.
2. (botany) One of the fine soft hairs on fruits, flowers, and other parts of plants.

Derived terms

• chorionic villus sampling

 

Related terms

• extravillous
• intervillar
• intervillous
• intravillous
• macrovillus
• microvillus
• perivillous
• velour
• velvet
• villar
• villiform
• villitis
• villonodular
• villosity
• villous

Translations

small projection from a membrane

• Arabic: زُغابَة f (zuḡāba), زَغْبَة f (zaḡba)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絨毛／绒毛 (zh) (róngmáo)

• Czech: klk (cs) m
• Finnish: nukkalisäke (fi)
• German: Zotte (de) f
• Hebrew: סִיס (he) m (sis)
• Hindi: अंकुर (hi) m (aṅkur)
• Hungarian: boholy (hu), bolyh (hu), (intestinal) bélboholy (hu), bélbolyh (hu)
• Irish: villeas m
• Korean: 융모 (yungmo)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: memîle m

• Malay: vilus, purasap
• Maori: tīngoingoi
• Polish: kosmek m
• Portuguese: vilo m
• Slovak: klk m
• Swedish: villus (sv)
• Turkish: villus (tr)

Latin

Etymology

Dialectal variant of vellus (“fleece”).

Noun

villus m (genitive villī); second declension

1. hair, tuft of hair, shaggy hair
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid I.701–702:

     Dant famulī manibus lymphās, Cereremque canistrīs
     expediunt, tōnsīsque ferunt mantēlia villīs.

     The servants give the hands waters, and corn from wicker baskets
     they deal, and bring towels of smooth hair.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	villus	villī
Genitive	villī	villōrum
Dative	villō	villīs
Accusative	villum	villōs
Ablative	villō	villīs
Vocative	ville	villī

Derived terms

• villōsus
• villūtus (Late Latin)

Descendants

• → English: villus
• Italian: villo, vello
• Spanish: vello

References

• “villus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “villus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• villus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• villus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.