dextrorse

English

Etymology

From Latin dextrorsum, contracted from dextrovorsum, dextroversum (“toward the right side”), from dexter (“right”) + versus, vorsus, past participle of vertere, vortere (“to turn”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

dextrorse (comparative more dextrorse, superlative most dextrorse)

1. Growing in a pattern that spirals clockwise around a central support; turning to the right when growing taller.
   • 1907, John Arthur Thomson, ‎William Dawson Henderson, ‎James Ritchie, Studies on Alcyonarians and Antipatharians, page 9:

     They are arranged in distinct dextrorse spirals, and are about one length apart.

   • 1911, Henry Hurd Rusby, A Manual of Structural Botany, page 60:

     Here it is important to note whether theoverlapping is from right to left, Dextrorse (Fig. 125), or the reverse, Sinsitrorse (Fig. 124).

   • 1997, American Journal of Botany - Volume 84, page 1338:

     At completion the suture line follows a dextrorse spiral in the capsule wall of nearly one revolution from base to tipe (Fig. 10).

2. (geometry) Having a negative torsion.

Usage notes

• Originally, the meaning of dextrorse, in botany, meant turning to the right where "right" was interpreted from the point of view of the plant. That meaning later shifted to interpret "right" from the point of view of the observer.

Antonyms

• sinistrorse

Derived terms

• dextrorsely