Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NODE, n. [L. nodus, Eng. knot; allied probably to knit, Sax. cnyttan.]

1. Properly, a knot; a knob; hence,
2. In surgery, a swelling of the periosteum, tendons or bones.
3. In astronomy, the point where the orbit of a planet intersects the ecliptic. These points are two, and that where a planet ascends northward above the plane of the ecliptic, is called the ascending node, or dragon's head; that where a planet descends to the south, is called the descending node, or dragon's tail. Encyc.
4. In poetry, the knot, intrigue or plot of a piece, or the principal difficulty. 5, In dialing, a point or hole in the gnomon of a dial, by the shadow or light of which, either the hour of the day in dials without furniture, or the parallels of the sun's declination and his place in the ecliptic, &c. in dials with furniture, are shown.
5. In botany, the part of a plant where the leaves are expanded and the buds formed. Lindley. Nodes or Nodal points, in music, the fixed points of a sonorous chord, at which it divides itself, when it vibrates by aliquot parts, and produces the harmonic sounds; as the strings of the Eolian harp.