Pl. -æ, rarely -as. [a. L. antenna, in ancient use ‘a sail-yard’; usually referred to Gr. ἀνατείν-ειν to stretch out or forth. The modern use seems to begin with the L. transl. of Aristotle Περὶ ζώων ἱστορίας, by Theodorus Gaza (died 1478) in which the Gr. κεραῖαι ‘horns’ of insects (cornua, cornicula Pliny) is rendered antennæ, which thence passed into subsequent entomological writers (many of whom cite Aristotle for it). As the projecting ‘horns’ or ends of sail-yards, in L. cornua antennārum, were also called κεραῖαι, antennæ was aptly employed to render the same word when meaning the horns of insects, which indeed often suggest the cornua of the long ascending antennæ or yards of lateen sails. Common in Lat. entomol. works during 16–17th c., but not found in the dict. of any mod. lang. bef. 1700.]
A sensory organ, occurring in pairs on the heads of insects and crustacea; popularly called horns or feelers.
[a. 1478. Theod. Gaza, Aristotle, Hist. Anim. (1492), 18 b. Ad hæc antennæ nonnullis ante oculos prætenduntur, ut papilioni et fulloni [Gr. ἔτι κερὰίας πρὸ τῶν ὁμμάτων ἔνια].
a. 1600. U. Aldrovandus, De animalibus insect. (1602), Prol. 7. Quædam cornicula gerunt in capite quæ antennas Aristoteles vocat. Ibid., II. 236. Aristoteles antennas iis ante oculos prætendi scripsit, idque ex eo repetiit Plinius, vocans istiusmodi antennas ignava cornicula.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying Ins., I. iii. 4. The horns are called by Aristotle, Antennæ, because they hold them forth before them.]
1698. Allen, Death-Watch, in Phil. Trans., XX. 377. The Antennæ proceeded from under the Eyes.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., VIII. ii. (ed. 3), 364 (Jod.). Insects clean their Eyes with their Forelegs, as well as Antennæ.
1826. Kirby & Spence, Entomol. (1828), II. xxiii. 303. This part looks like a jointed antenna.
1834. Good, Bk. Nat., II. 21. The antennas of the butterflies.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 788. The spiny Lobster … is distinguished by the very large size of its lateral antennæ.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., iii. 87. There are in the antennæ of ants certain curious organs which may perhaps be of an auditory character.
1880. Huxley, Cray-Fish, 24. The Antennæ are organs of touch.
2. fig. ‘Feelers.’
1855. Holmes, Poems, 214. Go to yon tower, where busy science plies Her vast antennæ, feeling thro’ the skies.
3. Bot. (by extension). A pair of long slender irritable processes in the male flower of certain orchids, by the excitement of which the pollinium is jerked out of the flower.
1862. Darwin, Orchids, 225. When the right-hand antenna … is touched, the pollinium is instantly ejected.
1874. Lubbock, Wild Flowers (1875), 175. Insects alight as usual on the lip of the flower (l), and it will be seen that in front of it are two long processes called antennæ (a n).
