echinus

[ ih-kahy-nuh s ]

/ ɪˈkaɪ nəs /

any sea urchin of the genus Echinus.

Architecture.

an ovolo molding, especially one having an outline with several radii or one carved with an egg-and-dart pattern.
the prominent circular molding supporting the abacus of a Doric or Tuscan capital.
Also called cymatium. the circular molding, usually carved with an egg-and-dart pattern, forming part of an Ionic capital between the volutes and under the balteus.

Origin of echinus

1325–75; Middle English < Latin < Greek echînos hedgehog, sea urchin

Yet the echinus can have, at the best, none but the most distant genetic relationship with the Polyzoa.

On the Genesis of Species |St. George Mivart
Nerve-cells lying among the muscular fibres at the base of a spine in Echinus.

Jellyfish, Starfish, and Sea-Urchins: Being a Research on Primitive Nervous Systems |G. J. Romanes
Others have acquired hard or armed shells, as the tortoise and the Echinus marinus.

Evolution, Old & New |Samuel Butler
Echinus (e-kīnus), in architecture, the ovolo or quarter-round convex moulding, seen in capitals of the Doric order.

The New Gresham Encyclopedia |Various

A favourite subject for such inquiries is the sea urchin (Echinus of different kinds).

More Science From an Easy Chair |Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester

echinus

/ (ɪˈkaɪnəs) /

architect an ovolo moulding between the shaft and the abacus of a Doric column

any of the sea urchins of the genus Echinus, such as E. esculentus (edible sea urchin) of the Mediterranean

C14: from Latin, from Greek ekhinos