Anat. Also 6 tymporall. [ad. L. temporāl-is, f. tempora the temples: see TEMPLE sb.2] Of, belonging to, or situated in the temples: esp. in names of structures, as temporal artery, bone, muscle, vein, etc.
Temporal canals, small passages for vessels and nerves through the malar bone to the temporal surface; temporal lobe, the lowest lobe of the brain lying below the Sylvian fissure; temporal fossa, that in which the temporal muscle originales.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 11/2. We should not hurte the temporalle muscle. Ibid., 29 b/1. The thirde is called the temporall, or vayne of the temples, which in divers branches ascendeth in the temples of the heade.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc., 327. Copious Bleeding by opening the temporal Arteries.
1842. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M. (ed. 2), 23. The Temporal Bone is … divisible into a squamous, mastoid, and petrous portion.
1854. H. Spencer, Personal Beauty, Ess. 1891, II. 390. The chief agents in closing the jaws are the temporal muscles.
B. sb. Elliptical for temporal artery, bone, muscle, etc.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., F j. Those [muscles] are called tymporalles, and are ryght noble and very sensyble, & therfore theyr hurt is very peryllous.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg., 8. The Temporal became ossified.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 228. The muscles of mastication—the masseters, temporals, and pterygoids.
1900. J. Hutchinson, in Arch. Surg., XI. No. 41. 23. The old woman’s temporals were scarcely, if at all, enlarged.
