echinus

plural echinuses · plural echini

1. A sea urchin.

   'It is a sea-urchin - a common echinus. Nature repeats itself in many forms regardless of the size. This echinus is a model, a prototype, of the world.'

   1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed

2. architectureThe rounded moulding forming the bell of the capital of the Grecian Doric style, which is of a peculiar elastic curve.
3. architectureThe quarter-round moulding (ovolo) of the Roman Doric style.
4. architectureThe egg-and-anchor or egg-and-dart moulding, because often identified with the Roman Doric capital.