Pl. thymi. [mod.L., a. Gr. θύμος (θῠ-) a warty excrescence; also the thymus gland (Galen).]
1. Anat. A glandular body of obscure function (one of the so-called ‘ductless glands’) situated near the base of the neck in vertebrate animals; in man usually disappearing after the period of childhood.
In the calf and lamb called by butchers sweetbread, or more precisely neck or throat sweetbread, for distinction from the pancreas or stomach sweetbread.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Thymus, a Glandule in the Throat, which separates watry Humour, called Lympha from the Blood, and empties it by the Lymphatick Vessels.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Thymus, is a conglobate Glandule in the Throat, growing to the upper part of the Mediastinum, and seated between the Divisions of the Subclavian Veins and Arteries.
1713. Cheselden, Anat., III. xi. (1726), 232. Just within the Thorax is seated another [gland] called Thymus.
1868. Owen, Vertebr. Anim., xxxii. III. 567. The thymus in Monotremes lies between the episternum and the beginnings of the vessels from the aortic arch.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 237. The thymus … is of very large size during immaturity.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 350. The thymus atrophies in the higher Vertebrata as a rule.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 89. Several instances of enlarged thymus have been reported of late years.
1904. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 10 Sept., 603. It is possible … that a similar extract prepared from human thymi would have a depressor action.
b. Now usually thymus gland (rarely body).
1776. M. Falconer (title), An Account of the Structure and Offices … of the Thymus Glands.
1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 111. The thymus gland is subject to few diseases, and is only of temporary existence.
1847. Youatt, Horse, xi. 231. It is ‘the thymus gland,’ or, in vulgar language, the sweet-bread.
1862. Miller, Elem. Chem., III. 722. Hypoxanthine has also been found in the thyroid or thymus glands.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 73. Abscesses beginning in the thymus body.
† 2. Path. A rugose wart resembling a bud of thyme. Obs.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Thymus,… also a fleshy Tumor that hangs upon the Body like a Wart, of a colour like the Flower of Time.
1811. in Hooper, Med. Dict.
