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Webster 1913 Edition

Echinus

‖

E-chi′nus

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Echini
(#)
.
[L., a hedgehog, sea urchin, Gr.
ἐχῖνος
.]
1.
(Zoöl.)
A hedgehog.
2.
(Zoöl.)
A genus of echinoderms, including the common edible sea urchin of Europe.
3.
(Arch.)
(a)
The rounded molding forming the bell of the capital of the Grecian Doric style, which is of a peculiar elastic curve. See
Entablature
.
(b)
The quarter-round molding (ovolo) of the Roman Doric style. See Illust. of
Column
(c)
A name sometimes given to the egg and anchor or egg and dart molding, because that ornament is often identified with the Roman Doric capital. The name probably alludes to the shape of the shell of the sea urchin.

Webster 1828 Edition

Echinus

ECH'INUS

,
Noun.
[L. from Gr.] A hedgehog.
1.
A shell-fish set with prickles or spines. The Echinus, in natural history, forms a genus of Mollusca. The body is roundish, covered with a bony crust, and often beset with movable prickles. There are several species and some of them eatable.
2.
With botanists, a prickly head or top of a plant; an echinated pericarp.
3.
In architecture, a member or ornament near the bottom of Ionic, Corinthian or Composite capitals, so named from its roughness, resembling, in some measure, the spiny coat of a hedgehog.

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