pineal
/ˈpɪnɪəl/ adjective, noun
Forms pineals
- adjective In the shape of a pine cone.
- adjective Pertaining to the pineal gland.
- noun The pineal gland.
Etymology
From French pinéal, from Middle French, from Latin pīnea (“pine cone, pine nut”), from pīneus (“of the pine”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Of or pertaining to a pine cone; resembling a pine cone. Pineal gland (Anat.), a glandlike body in the roof of the third ventricle of the vertebrate brain; --called also pineal body, epiphysis, conarium. In some animals it is connected with a rudimentary eye, the so-called pineal eye, and in other animals it is supposed to be the remnant of a dorsal median eye.
Etymology [L. pinea the cone of a pine, from pineus of the pine, from pinus a pine: cf. F. pinéale.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pineal”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details