Forms: α. 4–6 arterie, 6– artery; also β. 6 arter(e, 6–7 arture, artier, 7 arteir, -ir, -ire. [ad. L. artēria, a. Gr. ἀρτηρία, prob. f. αἴρ-ειν to raise, lift up (cf. AORTA), but referred by some of the ancients to ἀήρ ‘air,’ in accordance with their idea of arterial functions: see below. The parallel forms β. from F. artère were common in 16–17th c.]
† 1. The trachea or windpipe. (Called in L. arteria aspera, from the rough surface presented by its cartilaginous rings.) Obs.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, ccxxvi. 77. The longes, the midryffe, the arter trache, the Epigloote.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 93. That pipe which is called the rough artery or wind-pipe.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 522. The artery of his voice is pressed, and so he cannot cry aloud.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 199. [The Lungs] expelleth the air: which through the Artire, throat and mouth, maketh the voice.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. In respect of the … rough arterie, serpents are like birds.
2. One of the membranous, elastic, pulsating tubes, forming part of the system of vessels by which the blood is conveyed from the heart to all parts of the body.
Among the ancients, the arteries, as they do not contain any blood after death, were popularly regarded as air-ducts, ramifying from the trachea; see prec. sense. Mediæval writers supposed them to contain an ethereal fluid quite distinct from that in the veins, called ‘spiritual blood’ or ‘vital spirits’ (cf. ANIMAL SPIRITS), an error which, after Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood, only gradually died out.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. lxi. (1495), 177. A veyne callid Arteria … to bere and brynge kindely heete from the herte to al the membres … The other arterie of the herte is more than the fyrste.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helth, 12. Spirit vitall procedeth from the harte, and by the arteries or pulses is sente into all the body.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. The vaynes bereth the nourysshyng blode, and the arteres the spyrytual blode … For the veynes brede of the lyuer, and the arteres of the hert.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. II. iii. 16. Arteries are long and hollow, with a double skin to convey the vital spirits.
1706. Phillips, Arteries, in which the most thin and hottest part of the Blood, together with the Vital Spirits, pass thro’ the Body. [Similarly in Bailey, 1742].
1722. Quincy, Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2), 28/2 (J.). The Coats of the Veins seem only to be Continuations of the capillary Arteries.
1872. Baker, Nile Tribut., viii. 118. The arteries being divided, the animal would quickly bleed to death.
b. attrib.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 27 b. The arter strynge is the condyte of the lyfe sprite.
1528. Paynell, Salerne Regim., 2 B i. Veyne bludde ruddye and obscure: and arterie bludde ruddye and clere.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., I. 228/1. A forceps, not unlike the common artery-forceps.
3. fig.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), Pref. 5. To see the vanity of youth, so anatomised, that you may see euery veine, muscle and arterie.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, V. vi. 264. The awful curse of the papal excommunication … seemed to freeze up all the arteries of life.
4. transf. A main channel in a ramifying system of communication.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, v. § 270. These streams are the great arteries of inland commerce.
Mod. Fleet St. is one of the main arteries of London traffic.
† 5. A ligament. Obs.
1621. Quarles, Esther (1717), 96. The strongest Arteries that knit and tie The members of a mixed Monarchy.
1658. A. Fox, trans. Würtz’ Surg., II. xv. 120. The bones in the Joynt … are covered with Arteries, which are weaker than bones.
