taenia

noun

1. A ribbon worn in the hair in ancient Greece.

   historical

   Taenia and ivy leaves are added by hand. Figure wears a taenia horizontally over her brow and a spray of ivy in her hair.

2. A band between the frieze and architrave in the Doric order.

   The height of the taenia was likewise determined with regard to the total height of the epistyle, and again, although we should not expect a proportion of less than one-twelfth of the total height (as in the Parthenon), it is reduced to one-thirteenth, executed as 0.089-0.090 m.

   2004, William Bell Dinsmoor, The Propylaia to the Athenian Acropolis, Volume 2: The Classical Building, page 165,

3. Any of several ribbon-like bands of tissue.

   Each taenia traverses one of the following surfaces of the colon: the anterior surface, the posteroinferior surface, and the posterosuperior surface.

Where it comes from

From Latin taenia, from Ancient Greek ταινία (tainía, “ribbon, tape”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry taenia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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