GC: n

S: TexH – http://www.texasheart.org/HIC/Topics/Cond/CoronaryArteryDisease.cfm (last access: 10 June 2015); EncBrit – https://global.britannica.com/science/artery (last access: 16 November 2016).

N: 1. Late 14c., from Anglo-French arterie, Old French artaire (13c.; Modern French artère), and directly from Latin arteria, from Greek arteria “windpipe,” also “an artery,” as distinct from a vein; related to aeirein “to raise” (see aorta).
They were regarded by the ancients as air ducts because the arteries do not contain blood after death; medieval writers took them for the channels of the “vital spirits,” and 16c. senses of artery in English include “trachea, windpipe.” The word is used in reference to artery-like systems of major rivers from 1805; of railways from 1850.
2. Any one of the tubes that carry blood from the heart to all parts of the body.
3. Collocations:

• Adj.: main, major | blocked, clogged | severed | carotid, coronary, pulmonary, etc.
• Verb + artery: block | widen The surgeon will widen her arteries. | rupture, sever
• Artery + verb: clog up Too much fatty food will make your arteries more likely to clog up.
• Phrases: hardening of the arteries (= a disease of the arteries) She suffers from hardening of the arteries. | veins and arteries blood flowing through veins and arteries.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=artery (last access: 10 June 2015). 2. MW – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artery (last access: 10 June 2015). 3. OD – http://oxforddictionary.so8848.com/search?word=artery (last access: 10 June 2015).

SYN:
S:

CR: alkalosis, aneurysm, arteriosclerosis, arteritis, common carotid artery, Doppler effect, Doppler ultrasound, epistaxis, infusion, Takayasu arteritis, thrombosis, vein.