taenia

Noun

taenia (plural taenias or taeniae)

1. (historical) A ribbon worn in the hair in ancient Greece.
   • Taenia and ivy leaves are added by hand. Figure wears a taenia horizontally over her brow and a spray of ivy in her hair.2002, John Griffiths Pedley, Mario Torelli, editors, Section III: Hellenistic Figurines: K: Fenale Heads: Il Santuario Di Santa Venera a Paestum, University of Michigan Press, page 212
2. (Doric) A band between the frieze and architrave in the Doric order.
   • The height of the taenia was likewise determined with regard to the total height of the epistyle, and again, although we should not expect a proportion of less than one-twelfth of the total height (as in the Parthenon), it is reduced to one-thirteenth, executed as 0.089-0.090 m.2004, William Bell Dinsmoor, The Propylaia to the Athenian Acropolis, Volume 2: The Classical Building, page 165
3. Any of several ribbon-like bands of tissue.
   • Each taenia traverses one of the following surfaces of the colon: the anterior surface, the posteroinferior surface, and the posterosuperior surface.2004, Janice C. Colwell, Fecal and Urinary Diversions: Management and Principles, page 49
   • The general characteristics of the colon are its large caliber; the presence of pendant-shaped bodies of fat enclosed by peritoneum, called omental appendices; and the longitudinal muscle in its walls, which forms three narrow, ribbon-like bands called taeniae coli. The locations of the taeniae are...2006, Richard L. Drake, “Chapter 128: Anatomy of the Colon”, in Josef E. Fischer, Kirby I. Bland, Mark P. Callery, editors, Mastery of Surgery, volume 1, page 1424
4. Any species of the genus Taenia of tapeworms.
   • About an hour after the last dose, that is, in three hours after commencing the remedy, an entire tænia was voided alive, no other effect than a slight nausea having been experienced by the patient.[…]On plunging living tæniae either into the decoction, or into the mixture of the pomegranate bark...1835, W. B. Joy, “Worms”, in John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly, editors, The Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine, volume 4, page 545