a. [ad. L. columellār-is pillar-shaped, f. columella little pillar: see prec. and -AR1. Cf. F. columellaire.] Of or belonging to a columella (q.v.). Columellar lip: the inner lip of a spiral shell.
1829. Young Lady’s Bk., 100. The aperture [of a shell] is … of two lips; the columellar, or inner lip, and the outer lip, opposite to its edge.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca, II. 165. Dr. Pfeiffer terms those teeth ‘parietal’ which are situated on the body-whirl, those on the outer lip ‘palatal,’ and on the inner lip ‘columellar.’
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 48. The shell has been detached from the body to which it adhered mainly by means of the columellar muscles.
