spica

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: spi=ca

CIDE DICTIONARY

spica, n. [L., an ear, as of corn.].

•  A kind of bandage passing, by successive turns and crosses, from an extremity to the trunk; -- so called from its resemblance to a spike of a barley.  [1913 Webster]
•  A star of the first magnitude situated in the constellation Virgo.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

spica, n.
1 Bot. a spike or spikelike form.
2 Surgery a spiral bandage with reversed turns, suggesting an ear of corn.

Derivative

spicate adj. spicated adj.

Etymology

L, = spike, ear of corn, rel. to spina SPINE: in sense 2 after Gk stakhus