cortex

Borrowed from Latin cortex (“cork, bark”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹtɛks/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːtɛks/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɹtɛks

cortex (countable and uncountable, plural cortexes or cortices)

1. (countable, anatomy) The outer layer of an internal organ or body structure, such as the kidney or the brain.
   • 2011 April 8, Amie Ninh, “Liberal vs. Conservative: Does the Difference Lie in the Brain?”, in TIME‎^[1]:

     In the study, led by Ryota Kanai of the University College London, people who identified themselves as liberals generally had a larger anterior cingulate cortex — a comma-shaped region near the front of the brain that is involved in decision-making. By contrast, those who identified as conservatives had larger amygdalas — almond-shaped structures that are linked with emotional learning and the processing of fear.

2. (uncountable, botany) The tissue of a stem or root that lies inward from the epidermis, but exterior to the vascular tissue.
3. (archaeology) The outer surface of a piece of flint.

(outer layer of an animalian organ or body structure):

(botany):

• bark
• cork

• “cortex”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

cortex m (uncountable)

1. cortex

• cortex préfrontal

• “cortex”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Proto-Indo-European *(s)kort-ek-s, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kert-, extended from *(s)ker- (“to cut”).^[1]

Cognate with Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “I cut off”), English shear, German scheren, Albanian harr (“to cut, to mow”), Lithuanian ski̇̀rti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”), Old Armenian քերեմ (kʻerem, “to scrape, scratch”). See also scortum (“skin, hide”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔr.tɛks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔr.t̪eks]

cortex m or f (genitive corticis); third declension

1. The bark of a tree; the bark of a cork tree; cork.
2. The shell or outward part or covering of anything else; body.
3. Life preserver (made of bark)
   • nāre sine cortice

     to need no more assistance

     (literally, “to swim without life preserver”)

     (proverb)

Third-declension noun.

Borrowings:

• “cortex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cortex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "cortex", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cortex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cortex”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Borrowed from French cortex, Latin cortex.

cortex n (plural cortexuri)

1. cortex