Dictionary

stella en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈstɛl.ə/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stēlla (“a star”). Doublet of estoile, étoile, and stelo; related to aster and star.

Meanings

1. A star-shaped structure.
   • Plants of this collection are several decimeters taller; the pedicels are more remote in the inforescence; the stellae are larger and form a less dense cover on plant parts, and the siliques are slightly larger than in the usual form of the species. 1939 June, Reed C. Rollins, “Studies in the Genus Lesquerella”, in American Journal of Botany, volume 26, number 6, →DOI:
   • The morphological and statistic analyses are also given to the stellae structure of Olivooides and Punctatus, which indicates that this structure is a result of adaptive evolu- tion to a lifestyle of fast-attaching after hatching, probably with the function of mucilage secretion. 2008 December, Fang Chen, XiPing Dong, “The internal structure of Early Cambrian fossil embryo Olivooides revealed in the light of synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy”, in Chinese Science Bulletin, volume 53, number 24, →DOI, page 3860:
   • Stems and young branches terete, viscid, densely ferruginous-tomentose with sessile to short-stalked pauciradiate stellae bearing greatly prolonged 4-6-celled midpoints, these 0.1-0.2 cm long, gland-tipped, strongly armed with ferruginous laterally compressed prickles, these broad-based and sparsely glandular in the basal quarter. 1997 July, Maria de Fátima Agra, Michael Nee, “A new species of Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum (Solanaceae) from northeastern Brazil”, in Brittonia, volume 49, number 3, →DOI, page 350:
2. (US, alt-of) Alternative letter-case form of Stella.
   alt of Stella

Forms

Deriveds

stellate · stellar · stelliform · stellify

Relateds

stellion · stella octangula · constellatory · constellate · Estrella · Stella · Estelle · constellation · Estella