Stem of L. centrum and Gr. κέντρον, used as a combining form, with senses ‘center, central, centrally’: as Centroacinar a., of or belonging to the center of an acinus (of the pancreas). Centroclinal a. (Geol.), see quots. Centrodorsal a., of or belonging to the center of the back. Centrolinead (Geom.), see quots. Centrolineal a., applied to a series of lines converging to a center. Centrostaltic a. (Med.), ‘applied by Hall to the action of the vis nervosa in the spinal centre’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.). Centrostomatous a. (Zool.), having the mouth perfectly central, as a star-fish. Centrosymmetrical a. (Crystall.), having Centrosymmetry, symmetry to a point or center.
1881. Jrnl. Microsc. Sc., Jan., 115. The centroacinar cells of Langerhaus.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., iv. 83. When strata dip … to a common centre, they are said to be centroclinal.
1877. Green, Phys. Geol., ix. § 3. 347. They have a centroclinal dip or form a basin.
1878. Bell, trans. Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 218. The centro-dorsal plate.
1880. Carpenter, in Jrnl. Linn. Soc., XV. 193. A specimen with a more regular centrodorsal and pointed muscle-plates.
1814. P. Nicholson, in Trans. Soc. Arts, XXXII. 67. An instrument of my invention called a centro-linead, for drawing lines to inaccessible vanishing points in perspective.
1878. Stanley, Drawing Instr., 169. The centrolinead was invented by Peter Nicholson, a man of great geometrical ingenuity.
1878. Gurney, Crystallogr., 40. In the Anorthic system … a holohedral form can only be centro-symmetrical. Ibid., 36. The crystal can only possess symmetry to a point or centro-symmetry.
