pons

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

pons, n. [L., a bridge.].

 A bridge; -- applied to several parts which connect others, but especially to the pons Varolii, a prominent band of nervous tissue situated on the ventral side of the medulla oblongata and connected at each side with the hemispheres of the cerebellum; the mesocephalon. See Brain.  [1913 Webster]

∥Pons asinorum. [L., literally, bridge of asses.] See Asses' bridge, under Ass.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pons, n. (pl. pontes) Anat. (in full pons Varolii) the part of the brain stem that links the medulla oblongata and the thalamus.

Idiom

pons asinorum any difficult proposition, orig. a rule of geometry from Euclid ('bridge of asses').

Etymology

L, = bridge: Varolii f. C. Varoli, It. anatomist d. 1575