Arterio-contractile
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Undergoing contraction due to stimulation by arterial blood. not-comparable, obsolete
"From the facts detailed by Harvey, Goodwyn and others, which establish that in asphyxia the left ventricle of the heart ceases to contract before the right ventricle, the author infers that the irritability of the latter is greater than that of the former; and proposes to distinguish the first as arterio-contractile, and the latter as veno-contractile, from the circumstance of their being stimulated respectively by arterial and by venous blood."
Example
More examples"From the facts detailed by Harvey, Goodwyn and others, which establish that in asphyxia the left ventricle of the heart ceases to contract before the right ventricle, the author infers that the irritability of the latter is greater than that of the former; and proposes to distinguish the first as arterio-contractile, and the latter as veno-contractile, from the circumstance of their being stimulated respectively by arterial and by venous blood."
Etymology
From arteri- + -o- + contractile. Coined by English physiologist Marshall Hall in 1832 in the paper “Theory of the inverse Ratio which subsists between Respiration and Irritability in the Animal Kingdom”. Despite the initial uptake of this term, it failed to thrive, and is unattested beyond 1835, a mere three years after its coining.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.