Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Kissing.
- In biology, touching or intermediate between two or more groups; inosculant; intergrading: said of genera, families, etc., which connect or link others together.
- Adhering closely; embracing: applied to certain creeping animals, as caterpillars.
- noun In mathematics, the invariant whose vanishing signifies that the quantics all vanish, and that there is a syzygetic relation between the tangential qualitics.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Kissing; hence, meeting; clinging.
- adjective (Zoöl.) Adhering closely; embracing; -- applied to certain creeping animals, as caterpillars.
- adjective (Biol.) Intermediate in character, or on the border, between two genera, groups, families, etc., of animals or plants, and partaking somewhat of the characters of each, thus forming a connecting link; interosculant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Kissing ; hence,touching ormeeting ;clinging . - adjective zoology
Adhering closely; applied to certain creeping animals, such ascaterpillars . - adjective biology
Intermediate between twogenera ,groups ,families , etc., and having some of the characteristics of each;interosculant .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As some few of the old and intermediate forms have transmitted to the present day descendants but little modified, these constitute our so-called osculant or aberrant species.
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A few old and intermediate parent-forms having occasionally transmitted to the present day descendants but little modified, will give to us our so-called osculant or aberrant groups.
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A few old and intermediate parent-forms having occasionally transmitted to the present day descendants but little modified, will give to us our so-called osculant or aberrant groups.
On the Origin of Species~ Chapter 13 (historical) Charles Darwin 1859
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A few old and intermediate parent-forms having occasionally transmitted to the present day descendants but little modified, will give to us our so-called osculant or aberrant groups.
On the origin of species Charles Darwin 1845
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A few {429} old and intermediate parent-forms having occasionally transmitted to the present day descendants but little modified, will give to us our so-called osculant or aberrant groups.
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (2nd edition) Charles Darwin 1845
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OsculantForms or groups apparently intermediate between and connecting other groups are said to be osculant.
Glossary of the Principal Scientific Terms Used in the Present Volume 1909
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-- - Forms or groups apparently intermediate between and connecting other groups are said to be osculant.
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