apophysis

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   anatomy and zoology: a natural projection, process, or outgrowth from a bone or other body structure

   Each vertebral apophysis provides an attachment point or forms part of a joint.

2. 2
   noun

   botany: a swelling or enlarged region of an organ, such as the base of a moss capsule or the exposed part of a cone scale

   The pine cone scale ended in a thick, diamond-shaped apophysis.

Borrowed from Greek apophysis, 'offshoot or process,' from apo-, 'away from,' + physis, 'growth,' from phyein, 'to grow.' Scientific English applies the image of growth away from a main structure to anatomical and botanical projections.

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