areola

What it means

1. anatomyThe circular, darkly pigmented area surrounding a nipple; the areola mammae.

   Working with the Personal Genome Project, she has collected measurements and images of the areolas of 150 people so far. One initial finding is that the diameter of the areola seems unrelated to the number of areola glands — the small bumps in the skin surrounding the nipple.

   2014 April 28, Albert Sun, “From Volunteers, a DNA Database”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

2. broadlyanatomyAny small circular area that is different from its immediate environment, such as the colored ring around the pupil of the eye (iris) or an inflamed region surrounding a pimple.
3. anatomyAny of the small spaces throughout areolar connective tissue.

   The tubes or elongated spaces of which we have spoken, are not distended with any fluid, but are merely moistened in the same way as the areolas of ordinary areolar tissue.

   1847, The Medico-Chirurgical Review, volume 51, page 329

In a sentence

Working with the Personal Genome Project, she has collected measurements and images of the areolas of 150 people so far. One initial finding is that the diameter of the areola seems unrelated to the number of areola glands — the small bumps in the skin surrounding the nipple.

2014 April 28, Albert Sun, “From Volunteers, a DNA Database”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Where it comes from

1. Latināreola“small vacant space, garden”
2. Englishareola

Borrowed from Latin āreola (“small vacant space, garden”), diminutive of ārea. Doublet of areole.