Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tubercle

Tu′ber·cle (tū′bẽr·k'l), n. [L. tuberculum, dim. of tuber: cf. F. tubercule, OF. also tubercle. See Tuber.]

1. A small knoblike prominence or excrescence, whether natural or morbid; as, a tubercle on a plant; a tubercle on a bone; the tubercles appearing on the body in leprosy.

2. (Med.) A small mass or aggregation of morbid matter; especially, the deposit which accompanies scrofula or phthisis. This is composed of a hard, grayish, or yellowish, translucent or opaque matter, which gradually softens, and excites suppuration in its vicinity. It is most frequently found in the lungs, causing consumption.

Tubercle bacillus (Med.), a minute vegetable organism (Bacillus tuberculosis) discovered by Koch, a German physician, in the sputum of consumptive patients and in tuberculous tissue, and believed to be the exciting cause of tubercles and tuberculosis.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.