a. [f. as prec. + -IC.] a. Nat. Hist. Occurring in four different forms. b. Of or pertaining to a tetramorph.
a. 1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 79. Oxalis, Wood-sorrel … Tetramorphic flowers occur.
1901. A. G. Butler, in Proc. Zool. Soc., 15 Jan., 25. Limnas chrysippus is tetramorphic both at Aden and on the White Nile.
b. 1901. N. & Q., 9th Ser. VIII. 530/1. The tetramorphic emblems … date perhaps from c. 860 A. D.
So Tetramorphism, the phenomenon of exhibiting four different forms; in Chem., the property of crystallizing in four several forms.
1909. in Cent. Dict., Suppl.
