Extrorse

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Facing away from the center or directed outward in arrangement
2. Positioned so as to point away from a central point or axis
3. Arranged to turn outward, away from any midpoint or center

Etymology: Extrorse is a botanical and anatomical term built from Latin "extrorsus," meaning "outward" or "toward the outside," itself a compression of "exterius" (outward) and "versus" (turned toward). The Latin root is "extrorsum," which combines "extra" (outside) with "vorsus," the past participle of "vertere," to turn. So the word literally describes something turned outward, and the same pattern gives English "introrse," its opposite, turned inward. The term is a technical coinage rather than an everyday word. Botanists and anatomists adopted the Latin forms in the 18th and 19th centuries when they needed precise vocabulary for orientation, and English dictionaries record it in scientific use from that period. Its most common appearance is in botany, where it describes anthers that open toward the outside of a flower, as opposed to those that open toward the centre.

Synonyms: outward, external, exterior, outward-facing, projecting

Antonyms: introrse, inward, internal, interior, recessed