decussate

English

Chaetodon decussatus is a fish with decussate (adjective sense 2) markings

Swertia decussata is a plant with decussate (adjective sense 3) foliage

Etymology

The adjective is first attested in 1825, the verb in 1658. Borrowed from Latin decussātus, perfect passive participle of decussō (“to divide crosswise, arrange crosswise or mark with a cross”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from decussis (“a coin worth ten asses; a cross sign (from the cross shape of the Roman numeral for ten carved on the coins)”), from decem (“ten”) + as (“a Roman coin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈkʌseɪt/

Adjective

decussate (comparative more decussate, superlative most decussate)

1. Crossed; intersected; resembling a letter X.
3. (zoology) Having anatomical structures or markings crossing each other, typically in an X shape or at right angles.
5. (botany) Having opposite leaves arranged alternately at right angles.
   • 1849, John Craig, “Juniperites”, in A New Universal Etymological, Technological, and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language, Embracing All the Terms Used in Art, Science, and Literature, volumes II (Jac–Zyt), London: Published (for the proprietors,) by Henry George Collins, 22 Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 15:

     Juniperites, ju-ne-per-i′tis, s[ubstantive]. A genus of fossil plants, in which the branches are ranged irregularly; leaves short, obtuse, inserted by a broad base, opposite, decussate, and arranged in four rows.

6. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (rhetoric) Consisting of two rising and two falling clauses, placed in alternate opposition to each other.

   a decussated period

Synonyms

• decussant

Derived terms

• decussately
• hemidecussate
• redecussate

Translations

crossed

• Spanish: decusado (es)

Verb

decussate (third-person singular simple present decussates, present participle decussating, simple past and past participle decussated)

1. To form an X or to cross or intersect.
   • 1949, Herbert Eugene Walter, Leonard Perkins Sayles, Biology of the Vertebrates:

     The two trochlears decussate in the anterior medullary velum.

Related terms

• decussation
• decussative

Italian

Adjective

decussate

1. feminine plural of decussato

Latin

Verb

decussāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of decussō