Relating to or resembling a lamp or candle, particularly in medical or anatomical contexts referring to structures shaped like a lamp wick.
From Greek 'elychnion' meaning lamp wick, derived from 'lychnos' meaning lamp, with the adjective suffix '-ous' added in English to create a descriptive term.
This super-obscure medical adjective was used to describe certain tumor growths that physicians thought looked like lamp wicks under a microscope—it's a great example of how doctors invented colorful terms to describe what they saw.
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