claviform

adj

1. Larger at the tip than at the base; club-shaped.

   “Claviform is the reverse of stalactitic; it is composed of club-shaped parallel rods which adhere by their thin extremities. Examples, brown and black hæmatite.”

   “Two other claviform tentacula arise from the anterior superior part of the mantle [of sea slugs of the genus Doris].”

   “The embryo is roundish, compressed, with a very large, claviform radicle, and two large, foliaceous cotyledons, full of nerves, plaited, depressed, and applied to the radicle; the colour of the embryo is white, except the nerves of the cotyledons, which are rose-coloured.”

   “One zoarial fragment, from sample 2, may belong to Figularia. [...] The elongate-claviform zooecia have long, smooth proximal gymnocysts, extending as much as one-third the zooecial length and continuing as narrow strips along the lateral margins nearly to the distal end.”

   “They vary in shape from filiform (thread-shaped) or claviform (club-shaped) to capitate (with a terminal knob) or moniliform (with a series of knobs).”

2. Shaped like a nail (“a metallic spike-shaped fastener”).

   “CLAVOPORA Busk, 1874. Colony small, erect, coriaceous, claviform (nail-shaped), with two well differentiated parts: [...]”

3. Key-shaped.

   “The signs can be sorted out into two main classes: those which are paired or 'coupled' [...] and those which stand alone—mostly tectiform (roof-shaped) and claviform (key-shaped). There seems to be a conventional arrangement whereby certain signs are placed at the beginning of a 'sanctuary'.”

   “[André] Leroi-Gourhan identifies the following male signs: hook, single and double bars, dots and rows of dots. The bars derive from the phallus and the dots – we are convinced – stand for drops of sperm. He identifies the following female signs: triangles, rectangles, oval, derived from vulva and pudenda, and claviform, i.e. key-shaped signs, abstractions from a woman's figure with prominent backside [...].”

   “"Claviform" ("key-shaped") is the technical name given to the shapes in Figure 2 by archaeologists specializing in Paleolithic art. The claviform (key-like) sign common in High Paleolithic art may represent the yellow sclerotia, packed with ergot [...]”

noun

1. An image or symbol which is club-shaped, that is, larger at the tip than at the base.

   “In the early days of research, the images were often read very literally, and this was certainly taken to extremes – the classic example, of course, is the ‘signs’ in Ice Age cave art which the first researchers assumed to represent actual objects, and gave them names accordingly – for example, ‘claviforms’ were thought to be clubs, ‘tectiforms’ were thought to be roofs or huts, and so forth [...].”

   “There is also a faded red painting of a claviform (a thick curved line with a raised bump or point in the middle) that looks awfully similar to those found at a few other sites in northern Spain. A claviform from Altamira was dated using the uranium-series technique and is at least 35,000 years old.”

   “In Niaux, claviforms played a special role in that respect because we also find them very far inside the cave near the end of the galleries. [...] The same structure is visible at the Salon Noir itself. There, a claviform and a parallel bar were made on the first panel to the right, at the entrance.”