membrana

See also: membrána

English

Etymology

From Latin membrāna (“membrane, parchment”). Doublet of membrane.

Noun

membrana (plural membranae or (archaic) membranæ)

1. A membrane.
   • 1866, John Gamgee, The Cattle Plague; With Official Reports of the International Veterinary Congresses, Held in Hamburg, 1863, and in Vienna, 1865, London: Robert Hardwicke, page 781:

     It sometimes happens likewise that they appear at the same time, when the membranæ are bordered by knotty excrescences and the lungs with tubercles.

   • 1868, Edwin Lankester, George Busk, editors, Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, volume VIII, London: John Churchill and Sons, page 40:

     By it he also explains the appearances which have induced Henle to imagine that it was furnished with innumerable glandular follicles, inasmuch as in vertical sections of the membranæ the appearance afforded by the deeper furrows is precisely that of mucous follicles.

   • 1877, Charles H. Burnett, “Section VI. Diseases of the Internal Ear”, “Chapter I. Primary and Secondary Inflammation”, in The Ear; Its Anatomy, Physiology, and Diseases. A Practical Treatise for the Use of Medical Students and Practitioners, Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, “Secondary Inflammation of the Internal Ear”, page 579:

     Chronic aural catarrh most surely exists now on the right side, and as the membranæ are similar in appearance, each presenting unmistakable evidences of the aforesaid disease, I believe the left side had been affected by the chronic catarrh some time before, which in all probability induced the vertiginous attacks by an extension of disease to the labyrinth, and perhaps to the semicircular canals.

   • 1893, Albert H. Buck, editor, Supplement to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, volume IX, New York: William Wood & Company, page 252, column 1:

     By this means the adhesion was divided, that portion of the membrana which was adherent being cut away and either removed or left adherent to the inner tympanic wall.

   • 1893, Charles H. Burnett, “The Surgical Treatment of Chronic Tympanic Vertigo, Often Miscalled Ménière’s Disease”, in Transactions of the American Otological Society, volume V, New Bedford: Mercury Publishing Company, page 497:

     July 21st, 1893, the patient was etherized, and I endeavored to remove first the right and then the left incus, after their exposure by exsection of the posterior-superior quadrants of the membranæ.

   • 1894, S. Weir Mitchell, “Concerning the History of the Discovery of Reflex Ocular Neuroses, and the Extent to Which These Reflexes Obtain”, in George M. Gould, editor, The Medical News. A Weekly Medical Journal, volume LXIV, Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co., page 452, column 2:

     Otoscopic examination of the ear revealed retracted but not thickened membranæ. The incus was visible through each. Hearing in the left ear was nil; in the right ear by means of the ear-trumpet only. The tuning-fork was not heard per ossa in either ear. The membranæ were found restricted in their movement under the pneumatic speculum. […] By November 1st the right membrana had healed, and the man could hear conversation close to his ear without an ear-trumpet. A little tinnitus existed. / The day after the removal of the incus the patient could hear the voice close to the left ear, which had been impossible before. This ability, however, gradually disappeared before the membrana closed.

   • 1898, Medical Communications, volume XVII, page 499:

     Sept. 20th. Is very sick. Pulse is 115. Temperature 103. I simply examined the membranæ, which were normal. / Sept. 22, 24 and 26. Patient too sick to examine for hearing. Membranæ both normal.

   • 1899, Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, volume XII, page 113:

     Paint the upper and lower surfaces of the membrana to be removed with some suitable anæsthetic; allow time for this to act, secure the membrana firmly with a pair of forceps or by passing a fine silk thread through it, and excise with a small pair of curved scissors or sharp scalpel as close to the inner canthus as possible. […] In several cases which were kept under close observation for three or four years the animals did not in any way appear to be inconvenienced by the removal of their membranæ.

   • 1901, Transactions of the American Otological Society, volume VI, pages 257, 418:

     The membranae were clear and transparent and the incus could be plainly seen. […] In chronic purulent cases it is necessary to excise the remnants of the diseased membrana, and the malleus and the incus, with their synechial bands, in order to liberate the stapes.

   • 1906, Frederick Thomas George Hobday, Surgical Diseases of the Dog and Cat: With Chapters on Anæsthetics and Obstetrics, pages 114, 115:

     Symptoms.—It is not uncommon, especially after some debilitating diseases, for one or both of the membranæ to become paralyzed and to protrude over the eyeball, sometimes to such an extent as to cause considerable irritation to the patient and to interfere with vision. […] Occasionally, too, the membrana becomes swollen and afterwards thickened, or it may be the seat of a tumour.

   • 1920, Contributions to Embryology, Washington: The Carnegie Institution of Washington, page 136:

     These may enlarge with the extension of the membranæ, but there is never any shifting.

   • 1945, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, page 270:

     Let us imagine the physical and the psychical as though they were separated from each other by a barrier like that between the blood and the cerebrospinal fluid. For the maintenance of a proper balance between the two there must be a certain permeability in the dividing membranae, but under pathological conditions the permeability may be increased or diminished.

   • 1960, Proceedings of the Third World Orchid Conference, page 374:

     As it might be expected (under the concepts of evolution) it seems that there is a long series of intermediate conditions according to the degree of development which may have been reached by the membranae around the clinandrium.

   • 1977, Genetica, pages 25, 26, 40:

     The cells were filtrated through membranae Synpor 6 (VCHZ Synthesia Uhríněves) […] of 0.4 u porosity on filtration devices with membrana dia. by means of an underpressure produced by rotary oil vacuum pumps. During filtration the cells on the membrana were washed with a 37° C hot M-medium. From the surface of the membrana the cells were washed and resuspended in an M-medium. […] Following a 24 hours’ incubation in a cold room at the temperature of 4° C the samples were agitated and then filtered through membranae Synpor 6 of 24 mm dia. by means of a water pump.

   • 1987, Algology, Mycology & Protozoology (Microbiology Abstracts: Section C), page 83, column 1:

     In trypanosomes, the enzymatic conversion of the membranae form into the soluble form is accompanied by the unmasking of a particular immunological determinant, called cross-reacting determinant (CRD), which is located in the COOH-terminal phosphoethanolamine glycopeptide.

   • 1997, Biology Integrating Scientific Fundamentals: Contributions to the History of Interrelations Between Biology, Chemistry and Physics from the 18th to the 20th Centuries, →ISBN, page 106:

     He believed that many chemical formation processes cannot be observed under the microscope (for instance, the construction of the membranae), but only the structures definitely formed become visible, sometimes with the aid of chemical reagents.

2. A thin, animal-derived, flexible planar material, such as parchment.
   • 1913, Charles Higgins, editor, Key to the Bible: Being an Encyclopedia, Concordance and Dictionary of Persons, Places and Things Mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, page 441, column 2:

     Parchment was used for the MSS. of the Pentateuch in the time of Josephus, and the membranae of 2 Tim. iv. 13, were skins of parchment.

   • 1950, Hermathena: A Series of Papers on Literature, Science, and Philosophy, page 32:

     The parchment being much dearer than papyrus, the membranae consisted only of a few leaves.

   • 1956, Vigiliae Christianae, pages 1–2:

     In the opening poem, he recommends the edition in membrana, which is the popular and less costly one. In I 117 he has in view the de luxe edition which, apparently, was sold in a different book-shop. We learn from Martial that the public at large apparently contented itself with a less costly edition in membrana,⁴ whereas only wealthier persons bought a regularly got-up edition (clad in purple, etc.). We also can understand the disposition of the poems, for in the opening poem (I 2) Mart. wishes to attract the attention of the public at large and, therefore, recommends the edition in membrana. […]  / ⁴ In Book XIV among the presents of the Saturnalia books in membrana are mentioned again. Friedlaender pp. 296 and 299 ff. wrongly thinks that the membranae were the more costly presents, whereas Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (Leipzig 1882) had already offered the correct explanation.

Anagrams

• Abram men, Abram-men, Abrammen

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin membrāna.

Noun

membrana f (plural membranes)

1. membrane

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin membrāna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [məmˈbɾa.nə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [memˈbɾa.na]

Noun

membrana f (plural membranes)

1. membrane

Related terms

• membranós

References

• “membrana” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “membrana” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian мембрана (membrana).

Noun

membrana

1. membrane

Declension

Declension of membrana

	singular	plural
nominative	membrana	membranalar
genitive	membrananıñ	membranalarnıñ
dative	membranağa	membranalarğa
accusative	membrananı	membranalarnı
locative	membranada	membranalarda
ablative	membranadan	membranalardan

References

• “membrana”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

Galician

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin membrāna.

Noun

membrana f (plural membranas)

1. membrane

Interlingua

Noun

membrana (plural membranas)

1. membrane

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin membrāna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /memˈbra.na/
• Rhymes: -ana
• Hyphenation: mem‧brà‧na

Noun

membrana f (plural membrane)

1. (anatomy, botany) membrane

Derived terms

• intermembrana
• membrana cellulare
• membrana sierosa
• membranaceo
• membraniforme
• membranofono
• membranoso

 

Latin

Alternative forms

• membrānum (Late Latin)

Etymology

From membrum (“a limb or member of the body”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /memˈbraː.na/, [mɛmˈbräːnä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /memˈbra.na/, [memˈbräːnä]

Noun

membrāna f (genitive membrānae); first declension

1. (anatomy, zootomy) the skin or membrane that covers parts of the body; (especially) the skin or slough of snakes
2. (transferred sense)
   1. (botany) the thin skin of plants and other things
   2. a skin prepared for writing, etc.; parchment
   3. (poetic) the surface, outside of a thing

Inflection

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	membrāna	membrānae
genitive	membrānae	membrānārum
dative	membrānae	membrānīs
accusative	membrānam	membrānās
ablative	membrānā	membrānīs
vocative	membrāna	membrānae

Derived terms

• membrānāceus
• membrānārius
• membrāneus
• membrānula

 

Descendants

Descendants

• → Ancient Greek: μεμβρᾰ́νᾱ (membránā), μέμβρανον (mémbranon)
  • →? Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌼𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌽𐌰 (maimbrana) (possibly directly from Latin)
• → Asturian: membrana
• → Catalan: membrana
• → Dutch: membraan
• → English: membrana, membrane
• → French: membrane
• → Galician: membrana
• →? Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌼𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌽𐌰 (maimbrana) (possibly through Ancient Greek)
• → Italian: membrana
• → Occitan: membrana
• → Polish: membrana
• → Portuguese: membrana
• → Romanian: membrană
• → Russian: мембрана (membrana)
• → Spanish: membrana

Further reading

• “membrana”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “membrana”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• membrana in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “membrana”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “membrana”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin membrāna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛmˈbra.na/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ana
• Syllabification: mem‧bra‧na

Noun

membrana f

1. (mechanics) membrane (mechanical part that can deform or vibrate when excited by an external force)
2. (heteropteran anatomy) membrane (enclosing or separating tissue)

   Synonyms: błonka, zakrywka

3. (acoustics) diaphragm (vibrating membrane in a speaker)

Declension

Declension of membrana

	singular	plural
nominative	membrana	membrany
genitive	membrany	membran
dative	membranie	membranom
accusative	membranę	membrany
instrumental	membraną	membranami
locative	membranie	membranach
vocative	membrano	membrany

Derived terms

adjective

• membranowy

 

Related terms

noun

• membranofon

 

Further reading

• membrana in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• membrana in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin membrāna.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /mẽˈbɾɐ̃.nɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /mẽˈbɾɐ̃.nɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /mẽˈbɾɐ.na/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mẽˈbɾɐ.nɐ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mẽˈbɾɐ.nɐ/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /mẽˈbɾa.nɐ/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -ɐnɐ, (Brazil) -ɐ̃nɐ
• Hyphenation: mem‧bra‧na

Noun

membrana f (plural membranas)

1. membrane

Related terms

• membranoso

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin membrana.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /membrǎːna/
• Hyphenation: mem‧bra‧na

Noun

membrána f (Cyrillic spelling мембра́на)

1. membrane

Declension

Declension of membrana

	singular	plural
nominative	membrana	membrane
genitive	membrane	membrana
dative	membrani	membranama
accusative	membranu	membrane
vocative	membrano	membrane
locative	membrani	membranama
instrumental	membranom	membranama

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin membrāna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /memˈbɾana/ [mẽmˈbɾa.na]
• Rhymes: -ana
• Syllabification: mem‧bra‧na

Noun

membrana f (plural membranas)

1. membrane

Derived terms

• membrana basal
• membrana mucosa
• membrana nictitante
• membrana plasmática

 

Related terms

• membranáceo
• membranoso

 

Further reading

• “membrana”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28