[L. acētābulum a vinegar cup or saucer, also a saucerful, a liquid measure, and fig. a cup or saucer-shaped cavity; f. acētum vinegar + -abulum dim. of -abrum = a holder or receptacle. Used in Eng. both as the proper name of the ancient vessel and measure, and as a technical term in various sciences.]
1. Rom. Antiq. a. A vessel of porcelain or metal for holding vinegar at table; a cup or cup-shaped vessel. b. A liquid measure of the capacity of this vessel, about half a gill or 21/2 fluid ounces.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R. (1495), XIX. cxxiii. 933. The vessel in the whyche was soure wyne and corrupte was callyd Acetabulum.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), s.v., Acetabulum, or Acetable, a measure among the Romans, of liquor especially, but yet of dry things also, the same that oxybaphon in Greeke.
1857. Birch, Anc. Pottery (1858), II. 335. A small vase for oil or vinegar, acetabulum. Ibid., II. 317. Small vases called acetabula, or vinegar cups.
2. Animal Physiol. Applied to various cup-shaped cavities and organs: as, a. A sucker of the cuttlefish, or other cephalopod, by which it adheres to bodies. b. The socket of the thigh-bone. (Both of these uses in Pliny); Hence, by analogy, c. The socket or cavity of any joint in insects. d. A lobe or cotyledon of the placenta, in ruminating quadrupeds.
a. 1661. R. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min. Amongst Fishes … The Mollusca, or soft … some have acetabula, and two long trunks.
1835. Kirby, Habits & Inst. Anim., I. App. 357. Two oval plates, or disks, containing four oblong acetabula or suckers.
1851. Richardson, Geol., viii. 252. The arms are provided with acetabula or sucking discs, for adhesion to bodies.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. An., viii. 532. In Nautilus, the brachial processes are short, and possess no acetabula.
b. 1709. Blair, Osteogr. Eleph., in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 150. The Acetabulum was perforated in the bottom.
1872. Huxley, Physiol., vii. 173 In one joint of the body, the hip, the socket or acetabulum … fits … closely to the head of the femur.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., v. 180. The socket for the thigh-bone is called the acetabulum or cotyloid cavity.
c. 1828. Kirby & Spence, Entomol., III. xxxv. 537. The base is a spherical boss moving in an acetabulum of the thoracic shield. Ibid. (1835), Habits & Inst. Anim., II. xxii. 432. The lower [jaw] extends beyond the skull, a condyle of which acts in an acetabulum of that jaw.
d. a. 1859. Worcester cites Dunglison.
3. Bot. a. ‘The receptacle of certain fungals.’ Lindley & Moore. b. ‘An obsolete name of the herb Navelwort.’ Bailey, 1731.
