circinate

American  

[sur-suh-neyt] / ˈsɜr səˌneɪt /

adjective

1. made round; ring-shaped.

2. Botany, Mycology. rolled up on the axis at the apex, as a leaf or fruiting body.

---

circinate British  

/ ˈsɜːsɪˌneɪt /

adjective

1. botany (of part of a plant, such as a young fern) coiled so that the tip is at the centre

2. anatomy resembling a ring or a circle

---

circinate Scientific  

/ sûr′sə-nāt′ /

1. Rolled up in the form of a coil with the tip in the center, as an unexpanded fern frond.

2. See more at vernation

---

Other Word Forms

• circinately adverb

Etymology

Origin of circinate

1820–30; < Latin circinātus (past participle of circināre to make round), equivalent to circin ( us ) pair of compasses (akin to circus ) + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

These are the buds readying for the circinate vernation that will slowly, like a graceful dancer, unfurl fiddleheads into this year’s new fronds.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 25, 2022

Scarcely one       Peristome veils its beauties now, but then—   Like nascent diamonds, sparkling in the sun,       Or sainfoin, circinate, or moss in marshy fen.

From A Nonsense Anthology by Wells, Carolyn

When is a patch of eruption said to be circinate?

From Essentials of Diseases of the Skin Including the Syphilodermata Arranged in the Form of Questions and Answers Prepared Especially for Students of Medicine by Stelwagon, Henry Weightman

Equisetaceæ, 675 On the back or margin of fronds circinate in vernation.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

The leaves are generally circinate in the bud, as in ferns.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 1: Deposition to Eberswalde by Various