hamiform

First attested in glossaries in 1842 and first used in 1870; either directly from the Latin hāmiformis (1651, 1806) or formed from the suffixation of its etymon, hāmus (“hook”), with the English -form.

• (Received Pronunciation, UK) enPR: hāʹmĭfôrm, IPA^(key): /ˈheɪmɪfɔːm/

hamiform (comparative more hamiform, superlative most hamiform)

1. (conchology) Curved at the extremity.
   • 1842, George Brettingham Sowerby, A Conchological Manual (3rd ed.), page 156

     HAMIFORM. (Hamus, a hook.) Curved at the extremity.

   • 1843, Thomas Brown, The Elements of Fossil Conchology, glossary, page 129

     Hamiform, curved at the extremity.

   • 1870, American Journal of Conchology V, page 139

     Distinguished by the elongated hamiform siphonal canal and the posterior canal co-ordinated with the “facies” of Aporrhais.

   • 1904, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales XXVIII, page 590

     Legs (♂) light: anterior femora long, rather narrow; a short cylindrical hamiform process (a hook with apex sharply bent towards base of femur) projecting from lower side at about ⅓ of its length: anterior tibiæ long, narrow on basal half, wide at apex, nor curved; intermediate long (longer than femora), strongly curved inwards; posterior long, slender: anterior tarsi stout, joints not dilatate, 5th longest, longer than three preceding together, basal joint much longer than 2nd, squamulose in middle of lower side near apex, 2nd and 3rd joints with two narrow rows of squamæ in middle of lower side; four posterior tarsi narrow, cylindrical, posterior much longer than intermediate; posterior coxæ contiguous.

2. Shaped like a hook.
   • 1916, Cornelis Rugier Willem Karel Alderwerelt van Rosenburgh, Malayan Ferns and Fern Allies (Landsdrukkerij), page 177

     Pinnae subentire or slightly repand, gradually short-acuminate; under surface provided with gland-like, hamiform hairs; main rachis provided with a callous gland at the place of insertion of the pinnae.

• “Hamiform, a.” listed on page 49 of volume V (H–K), § i (H) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1901]
    Hamiform (hēⁱ·mifǭɹm), a. [f. L. hāmus hook: see -form.] Hook-shaped. [¶] a 1849 Maunder cited in Worc. (1860).
• “hamiform, a.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989]