Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An evolutionary trend in the animal kingdom toward centralization of neural and sensory organs in the head or anterior region of the body.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In biology, a term first used by J. D. Dana to denote a tendency in the development of animals to localization of important parts in the neighborhood of the head, as by the transfer of locomotive members or limbs to or near to the head (in decapod crustaceans, for example), or the concentration of plastic force in parts composing the head, or subserving cephalic functions. It is accomplished in various ways: by the transfer of members from the locomotive to the cephalic series; by participation of anterior locomotive organs in cephalic functions; by increased abbreviation, condensation, and perfection of structure anteriorly, with the opposite qualifications posteriorly; or (in man alone) by the uprising of the cephalic end, till at last the body becomes vertical.
- n. A supposed tendency to a gradual increase in the size of the brain correlative with cultural development.
Wiktionary
- n. biology An evolutionary trend in which the neural and sense organs become centralized at one end (the head) of an animal
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Domination of the head in animal life as expressed in the physical structure; localization of important organs or parts in or near the head, in animal development.
Examples
“The differentiation of a head region marked by sense organs and a mouth is referred to as cephalization ( "head" G), The process of cephalization has its internal effects on the nervous system.”
“It had the double cephalization ratio of brain size to body size of the anthropoid apes in general and half that of man . . .”
“This lack of advanced cephalization is reflected internally; the nerve cord runs forward into the head region with scarcely any sign of specialization.”
“It may be suggested that saponin is thus a constructive element in developing the plant from the multiplicity of floral elements to the cephalization of those organs.”
“Indeed, this increased cephalization of animal life in the fall of the great year does suggest a kind of ripening process, the turning of the sap and milk, which had been so abundant and so riotous in the earlier period, into fibre and fruit and seed.”
“[2] They are made up of a knob-like head or scolex (where most of the sensory organs are located-cephalization), a short, unsegmented neck following the scolex, and multiple flat, rectangular body segments or proglottids forms the strobila.”
“[2] They are made up of a knoblike head or scolex (where most of the sensory organs are located-cephalization), a short, unsegmented neck following the scolex, and multiple flat, rectangular body segments or proglottids forms the strobila.”
“They have a primitive nervous system but have the characteristic of cephalization (having all the sensory organs concentrated in the anterior or head region).”
“[1] They are made up of a knoblike head or scolex (where most of the sensory organs are located-cephalization), a short neck, and multiple flat, rectangular body segments or proglottids.”
“Slow moving mollusks (e.g. clams) have little or no cephalization and simple sense organs”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cephalization’.
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Antedatings
Earlier instances of words in English than cited in the Oxford English Dictionary. List the word here and quote the source in a comment.
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A few of my favorite definitions from...
I'm especially fond of ones written by Charles Sanders Peirce.
theodolite, illusion, buckie, frank, abstract-concrete, semidiagrammatic, object-object, vortex-filament, dod, parrock, cobler, weather-box and 354 more...
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biology
amygdala, thalamus, temporal lobe, suclus, pons, parietal lobe, brainstem, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, hemisphere, frontal lobe and 13 more...
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Human Medical Terms
spermatogonial, avulsed, teetotalism, rubenesque, superfetation, paroxysm, cephalization
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mollusque OED2 cites 1864, but Dana first used the term in 1852.
"This centralization is literally a cephalization of the forces. In the higher groups, the larger part of the whole structure is centered in the head, and contributes to head functions, that is, the functions of the senses and those of the mouth."
--James D. Dana, 1852, Crustacea. Part II. United States Exploring Expedition 13: 1397 Oct 8, 2009
quotato 1864, coined by U.S. zoologist James D. Dana (1813-1895) from Gk. kephale "head" on model of specialization, etc.
It is harder to keep your head together when it keeps enlarging.... Oct 8, 2009