Anat. Pl. zygomata, zygomas. Also 8 erron. zigoma. [mod.L., a. Gr. ζύγωμα, f. ζυγόν yoke. Cf. F. zygome, † zigome.] The bony arch on each side of the skull in vertebrates, consisting of the malar or jugal bone (cheek-bone) and its connections, and forming a junction between the cranial and facial bones; the zygomatic arch; also, in restricted sense, some part of this, as the malar bone itself, the zygomatic process of the temporal bone, or the process of the malar which articulates with this.
1684. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (1693), Zygoma, the jugal Bone about the Temples.
1758. J. S., trans. Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 13. There appeared near the Zigoma..., by the Wing of the Nostril, a slender Fluctuation.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 175. The fracture ran horizontally, about a quarter of an inch above the zygoma.
1806. Sir C. Bell, Anat. Expr. (1872), 109. The zygoma, a process of the cheek-bone, which joins the temporal bone.
1825. A. Monro, Anat. Hum. Body, I. 379. The Temporal muscle is seen in the temples, and its tendon passing under the zygoma.
1855. Holden, Hum. Osteol. (1878), 69. At the lower part of the squamous portion there is an outgrowth of bone, termed the zygoma.
1893. H. Morris, Treat. Human Anat., 37. A ridge of bone, the supra-mastoid crest, runs immediately above the external auditory meatus, and is continued onwards to the zygoma.
