acinus

Meanings

1. One of the small grains or drupelets which make up some kinds of fruit, as the blackberry, raspberry, etc.
2. A grape-stone.
3. One of the granular masses which constitute a racemose or compound gland, as the pancreas; also, one of the saccular recesses in the lobules of a racemose gland.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin acinus (“grape, grape-stone”); the histopathologic sense comes figuratively from the fancied resemblance (on microscopy) of acinic cells (acinar cells) to bunches of drupelets, berries, or grapes.