cortical

adj

Etymology: From Latin cortex (“bark”), stem cortic-, + -al.

1. Pertaining to the outer layer of an internal organ or body structure, such as the kidney or the brain.

   “An adult male skeleton from Wharram Percy showed fine-grained subperiosteal deposits of new bone on multiple skeletal elements, together with fine cortical pitting[…].”

2. Pertaining to the cortex of a stem or root—the tissue that lies inward from the epidermis, but exterior to the vascular tissue.