hingement

English

Etymology

From hinge +‎ -ment.

Noun

hingement (countable and uncountable, plural hingements)

1. The connection between the two halves of a bivalve's shell.
   • 1963, James Charles Melik, The Hingement and Contact Margin Structure of Palaeocopid Ostracodes From Some Middle Devonian Formation of Michigan, Southwestern Ontario, and Western New York., page 58:

     According to Scott (1961, p. Q84), the hingement of the Kirkbyacea resembles that found in the Kloedenellacea, suggesting a possible relationship between these superfamilies.

   • 1978, Philip D. Gingerich, New Condylarthra (Mammalia) from the Paleocene and Early Eocene of North America, page 289:

     The genus Saipanetta has been suggested to be a surviving relict of the metacopidan superfamily Healdiacea because of its muscle scar pattern and narrow duplicature; nevertheless, it differs from the Metacopida in its more complex hingement, lack of a distinct contact groove, exaggerated domiciliar asymmetry, and lack of posterior ridges or angulations.

   • 2013, Hiroshi Moriyama, Sexual Dimorphism, page 70:

     Okubo's illustration (Fig. 17b in [72], p. 425) clearly shows the large anterior hingement tooth on the female. However, he also did not refer to this characteristic or the morphology of the male's hingement in the text.