Vitelline

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the yolk of an egg, the membrane surrounding the yolk, or factors associated with embryonic development and nutrition
2. Pertaining to substances or structures connected with egg yolks, including biological roles in growth, protection, and nourishment
3. Describing elements related to yolk, particularly in the context of reproductive biology or developmental processes in various organisms

Etymology: In Latin the yolk of an egg and a little calf had the same name: "vitellus." The yolk's adjective, the calf's meat and the skin medieval scribes wrote on all descend from that one word. "Vitellus" was a diminutive of "vitulus," "calf," a word perhaps related to an old root for "year," so that a calf was originally a yearling. Why Romans also used "vitellus" for the yellow heart of an egg has not come down to us, but they did. Much later, medieval Latin formed from it the adjective "vitellinus," "of the yolk." The calf sense travelled into English by the everyday road. In Old French "vitellus" wore down to "veel," which Norman French brought to England as the word for calf's meat: veal. Calfskin prepared for writing became "velin" in French and vellum in English, so many illuminated manuscripts are made, quite literally, of the same word. The yolk sense took the scholar's route. English took "vitelline" straight from Latin as a learned borrowing, and it found its lasting home in embryology and anatomy. The vitelline membrane is the envelope around an egg cell. The vitelline duct and vitelline veins link an early embryo to its yolk sac, even in placental mammals, whose yolk sacs hold almost no yolk. Ancient writers pushed "vitulus" further still, claiming that Italy itself was named the land of calves. During the Social War of 91 to 87 BC, Italian rebels struck coins reading "Víteliú," the Oscan form of the name, showing a bull goring the Roman wolf.

Synonyms: yolk-colored, yellow