[L. centrum CENTRE of rotation, etc., a. Gr. κέντρον sharp point, a goad, a peg, the stationary point of a pair of compasses; f. same root as κεντέ-ειν to prick, goad, stab, etc.]
The Latin word for center, used technically in Animal Phys.: The body of a vertebra; the solid part to which the arches and processes are attached.
1854. R. Owen, in Circ. Sc. (1865), II. 62/2. The centrums coalesce.
1869. Gillmore, Rept. & Birds, Introd. 5. Free vertebræ, forming a series of separate centrums, deeply cupped at both ends.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 5. The articular ends of their centra.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. i. 29.
