putamen

[pyoo-tey-min]

noun

plural

putamina 

1. Botany.,  a hard or stony endocarp, as a peach stone.

2. a shell membrane.

putamen

/ pjuːˈteɪmɛn /

noun

1. the hard endocarp or stone of fruits such as the peach, plum, and cherry

Other Word Forms

• putaminous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of putamen¹

1820–30; < Latin putāmen, equivalent to putā ( re ) to prune, clean + -men resultative suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of putamen¹

C19: from Latin: clippings, from putāre to prune

Example Sentences

As the patients responded, researchers found activity in a surprising place: the putamen.

From Science Daily

The key nodes of the network identified by the researchers were putamen, amygdala and claustrum located deep within the brain, and the connections between them.

From Science Daily

Connections between the sensorimotor putamen and the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in emotion regulation, among other things, and is also implicated in habit learning, were weaker.

From Science Magazine

There is the putamen, which helps our limbs move.

From Los Angeles Times

With repetition of a task, brain activity moves into areas of the putamen and the basal ganglia, deep in what Wood calls “the rudimentary machinery of our minds.”

From The New Yorker