semiforms

Noun

semiform (plural semiforms)

1. A partial or imperfect form.
   • For seventeen years he had kept death at bay, and, at the time I speak of, medical diagnosis revealed that but one lung supported his remnant of life; thet that semiform of life seemed equal to the prime of many a hale man .1880, Horace Bushnell, Mary A. Bushnell Cheney, Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell, page 531
2. A crystal structure that is more elaborate than the simplest (primitive) form but which does not include all the faces and symmetry elements characteristic of the full crystal system.
   • This semiform π (312) is again to be observed on crystal No. 13, though it is there represented by only a single face.1882, L. Fletcher, “Crystallographic Notes”, in London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science (Supplement), volume 13, page 479