# capillation
## English
### Etymology

From Latin [Term?] (“hair”).

### Pronunciation

* This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA or enPR then please add some!

### Noun

capillation (plural capillations)
* (obsolete) A capillary (blood vessel).
** 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:Nor is the humour contained in smaller veins or obscurer capillations, but in a vesicle or little bladder
** 1859, Carl Baunscheidt, Baunscheidtismus, page 45:they are rather noxious to the secretive organs of the urine which, during the latter part of the time, operate still more disadvantageously on the whole organism, because they cut up, violently, the tender capillation, so needful to the economy of the blood, partly by the quick process of putrefaction, in which they throw the body, before dying away;
* (by extension, obsolete) A branching structure or ramification.
** 1786, Thomas Hurtley, A Concise Account of Some Natural Curiosities in the Environs of Malham, page 51:This Water is between three and four yards deep in all places, with a fine bottom of soft Marle and Sand; from every part of which in a calm day you may perceive the capillations of almost innumerable fountains, which are the principal feeders of the Tarn.
** 1933, H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror in the Museum:The globular torso—the bubble-like suggestion of a head—the three fishy eyes—the foot-long proboscis—the bulging gills—the mostrous capillation of asp-like suckers— the six sinuous limbs with their black paws and crab-like claws —God !
* (obsolete, medicine) A hairline fracture of the skull.
** 1786, Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia:CAPILLATION, or CAPILLARY fracture, according to some writers, is a fracture in the skull, so small that it can scarce be perceived; but yet it often proves mortal.
** 1913 April 5, “One Hundred Years Ago: An Encyclopaedia of Medicine in 1813”, in British Medical Journal, volume 1, page 726:Then there are papers on canthus, on canule (a canula), on caout-choue (valgairement gomme e/lastique), on capeline (a sort of bandage), on capillaire (in its botanical, physical, and anatomical meanings), on capillament (the hair of the head and of other parts of the body), on capillation (a slight fracture of the cranium), on capistration (with is cross reference to phimosis), on capistre (a sort of trismus), […]
* (Paleontology) A pattern of hair-like structures or fine, thread-like projections on the surface of an organism
** 1909, S. Buckman, “The Brachiopoda of the Namyau Beds”, in Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India: Palaeontologia Indica, page 184:The fact that the majority of the Burma Terebratulids have been burnt has caused the suggestion to be made that the capillation shows on this account more plainly than it would otherwise do. For in certain cases of decortication of the test a sort of capillation may be observed which does not show under ordinary conditions.
** 1960, Helen Marguerite Muir-Wood, Gustav Arthur Cooper, Morphology, Classification and Life Habits of the Productoidea (Brachiopoda), page 87:Pedicle-valve ornament of concentrid lamellae and growth lines, faint capillation; spines in row at low angle to hinge, directed laterally, bases subparallel. Brachial-valve ornament similar but no spines; concentric ornament more prominent; traces of fine capillation.
** 1981, Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology - Issues 44-52, page 28:A subdued wavy capillation occurs in some Tertiary and modern genera , such as Dyscolia, Mimorina, and Goniobrochus, but all three differ in their loops.
* Hair or pelt.
** 1860, Thornton Leigh Hunt, “Verses on a full flowing Peruke, By Richard Honeycomb (1673)”, in The Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt, page 313:The monarch, whose inglorious look (Having a natural-born peruke) Gave rise to this great capillation, Ill treateth sure his gallant nation, And takes too many pains by far In seeking such renown in war,
** 1924, The Urologic and Cutaneous Review - Volume 28, page 134:These markings are old, are to be regarded as the remains of the color marking and of the capillation of our animal forefathers.
** 1960, Paul Thomas, Kama Kalpa: Or, the Hindu Ritual of Love, page 71:[…] her generous hips from the sweep of conquering chariots; her navel (which seemed an eddy in Ganges' stream) from the semblance of an early flowering ornamental lotus bud; her three plicatures from the ordered rise of a palace stairway; her capillation from the lovely sheen of bees that cling from Love's bowstring; her breasts from the beauty of two full golden bowls; arms from the delicacy of vines in a bower; her neck from the symmetry of a conch of victory; her lib, like the bimba fruit, from the redness of mango flowers that maidens fondly wear above the ear; […]
* The movement of liquid by capillary action.
** 1856, Chandos Wren Hoskyns, “On 'Ridge-and-Furrow' Pasture Land, and a method of levelling it”, in Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, page 328:the crown of he ridge is isolated, raised out of reach of the re-active moisture from below, that supports the level of herbage of a meadow in long droughts, and confirms the benefit of the draining-tile under a level surface by increased 'capillation' set up in the soil.
** 1899, J.O. Barrett, “The Mulch Vs. Cultivation”, in The Minnesota Horticulturist, volume 27, page 449:These manure nuggets, so to speak, are absorbers and detainers of moisture that comes up from below by capillation due to surface culture, and is easily absorbed through the dust blanket from the summer showers .
** 1901, George T. Chapman, Chapman's Manual of the Pathological Treatment of Lameness in the Horse, page 107:To those who are not conversant with the technique of anatomy and physiology, and the use and direction of animal fluids, we will methion that osseious or bony peroperties are carried in a fluid state where needed for absorption, and by a process of capillation along the periosteum , a silken membrane covering the bone and carrying the bony fluid , somewhat as the silken membrane or inner covering of a tree carries the sap .
** 2001 May 1, Stephen H. P. Wong, Billy Kiang, “US 6223973 B1 Apparatus and Method for Connectin Printed Circuit Boards through Soldered Lap Joints”, in Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, page 228:introducing molten solder through the aperture proximate the first edge of the first printed circuit board, so as to urge capillation of the molten solder between the first and second printed circuit boards;
* (by extension, figurative) A sympathetic tendency to move towards something
** 1898, Eugene Henri Kelly, Architectural Acoustics: Or, The Science of Sound, page 19:The voice flattens in pitch by the returning resonance wave, have a pitch a trifle lower, which, assisted by the lack of perfect confidence in nearly every singer, draws the voice over by sympathy in capillation.
* The problem of extra liquid adhering to the surface of a needle or pipette through capillary action, causing errors in delivering an accurate amount.
** 1973, UV Spectrometry Group, Bulletin - Issues 1-5, page 15:The main sources of error which oocur during sample application are creep back and capillation.
** 1984, Tuan Vo-Dinh, Room Temperature Phosphorimetry for Chemical Analysis, page 135:We have found that the use of micropipettes helps avoid the capillation effect since only one delivery is made at a time and the effect due to capillation can be taken into account by proper calibration.
** 1992, Joseph C. Touchstone, Practice of Thin Layer Chromatography, page 83:It is interesting to note that with a micropipet the degree of creep back is greatly reduced since only one delivery is made and capillation is probably taken into account when calibrating .