Bot. and Anat. Pl. villi. [L. villus tuft of hair, shaggy hair, etc.]
1. Bot. A long, slender, soft hair.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Villi, in Botany, are small Hairs like the Grain of Plush or Shag, with which, as with a kind of Excrescence, some Trees do abound.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 90. The multicellular heads of the … glandular hairs, villi, and scales.
2. Anat. A slender hair-like process or minute projection forming one of a number closely set upon a surface.
pl. 1728. Chambers, Cycl., Crusta Villosa,… the fourth Tunic … of the Stomach…. On the inner Surface of this Coat, are seen innumerable Villi or Fibrillæ.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 260/1. The villi of this intestine [sc. the duodenum] are thicker than in the stomach.
1792. [see VILLOUS a. 1 b].
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., 174. The lacteals originate in the numberless villi, or minute projections, with which the mucous membrane that lines the alimentary tube is covered.
1861. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 31. The surface of this layer is often elevated into a number of villi, or conical processes.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 26. It may be produced into many, often relatively large, papillæ or villi.
sing. 1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., 40. In the intervals of the digestive action, only a few granules … can be seen at the end of the villus.
1886. Beale, Slight Ailments, 89. Every villus of the intestinal canal is supplied with nerve fibres.
