The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Lituus \Lit"u*us\, n.; pl. Litui. [L.] 1. (Rom. Antig.) (a) A curved staff used by the augurs in quartering the heavens. (b) An instrument of martial music; a kind of trumpet of a somewhat curved form and shrill note. [1913 Webster] 2. (Math.) A spiral whose polar equation is r^2[theta] = a; that is, a curve the square of whose radius vector varies inversely as the angle which the radius vector makes with a given line. [1913 Webster]