a. and sb. [ad. mod.L. subcostālis: see SUB- 1 b and COSTAL.]
A. adj. 1. Anat. Situated below a rib or beneath the ribs; lying on the under side of a rib, as a groove for an artery.
1872. Humphry, Myology, 19. The under or sub-costal parts of the broad pelvic shield.
1876. Quain’s Elem. Anat. (ed. 8), I. 23. The inferior border [of a rib] presents on its inner aspect the subcostal groove. Ibid. (1882), (ed. 9), I. 30. The subcostal angle into the centre of which the ensiform process projects.
1890. Billings, Nat. Med. Dict., Sub-costal angle, that formed by margins of costal cartilages at lower aperture of thorax.
1910. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 11), II. 667. Below the last rib a subcostal artery runs.
2. Entom. Situated behind or near the costal vein or nervure of an insect’s wing.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 376. Neuræ Subcostales (the Subcostal Nervures). Nervures springing from the under-side of the post-costal nervure, or from each other.
B. sb. A subcostal muscle (usually in L. form subcostalis); a subcostal artery, vein or nervure.
[1733. trans. Winslow’s Anat. (1756), I. 319. The Sub-Costales having the superior Extremities of their Fibres much more distant from the Vertebral Articulation of the Ribs, than the lower Extremities.]
