Anat. Pl. tragi. [Late L., from tragus, a. Gr. τράγος he-goat, so named on account of the bunch of hairs which it bears: see quot. 1874.] A prominence on the inner side of the external ear, in front of and partly closing the orifice, opposite to the ANTITRAGUS, and in man usually bearing a tuft of hairs; specially developed in certain bats.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Tragus, the extream Brim of the Ear.
1809. Abernethy, Dis. resemb. Syphilis (1826), 127. Situated on the front of the ear, extending over the tragus.
1874. Roosa, Dis. Ear (ed. 2), 19. Rufus of Ephesus, who was the first medical lexicographer, and who lived in the age of Pliny, used the names helix, lobe, tragus, and anti-tragus, still employed to describe the different parts of the auricle.
1904. Speaker, 24 Dec., 315/2. The earlet, a curious development of the tragus in insectivorous bats.
