arrow

en-verb

arrow (third-person singular simple present arrows, present participle arrowing, simple past and past participle arrowed)

arrows (present singular third-person)
arrowing (participle present)
arrowed (participle past)
arrowed (past)

The more vigorous and luxuriant the vegetation of a field of canes, the less will the tendency to flowering be shewn; whereas nearly all the canes will be found to arrow if the soil be poor and the vegetation meagre.

1848, Louis Antoine A.G. De Verteuil, Three essays on the cultivation of the sugar-cane in Trinidad, page 12:

In some sugar cane countries efforts are made to harvest the cane crops before the period of arrowing, and in Barbados it is thought that a considerable loss occurs in the yield of sugar if the harvest be delayed and only completed through the arrowing season.

1903, Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, volume 30, page 374:

It is easily grown and arrows freely. It appears to be of moderate merit only, but might be cautiously tried on a small scale.

1905, Sugar-Cane Experiments in the Leeward Islands:

(intransitive, botany, of a sugar cane plant) To develop an inflorescence.


slash

Late Middle English, originally a verb of uncertain etymology. Perhaps of imitative origin, or possibly from Old French esclachier (“to break in pieces”), a variant of esclater, which is likely a Germanic borrowing, from Frankish *slaitan (“to slit, tear”).
Used in the Wycliffe Bible as slascht (see 1 Kings 5:18) but otherwise unattested until 16th century. Conjunctive use from various applications of the punctuation mark ⟨/⟩. See also slash fiction.

onomatopoeic

imitative

der

(botany) A deep taper-pointed incision in a plant.


crash

From Middle English crasshen, crasschen, craschen (“to break into pieces”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a variant of earlier *crasken, from crasen (“to break”) + -k (formative suffix); or from earlier *craskien, *craksien, a variant of craken (“to crack, break open”) (for form development compare break, brask, brash).

suffix

(ecology) A sudden decline in any living form's population levels, often leading to extinction.


multi

Our Mesozoic antecedents are typified by small size; even the largest of the multis are not larger than a groundhog.

1996, Michael Novacek, Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs, page 316:

(informal, paleontology) A multituberculate.


mast

en-verb

mast (third-person singular simple present masts, present participle masting, simple past and past participle masted)

masts (present singular third-person)
masting (participle present)
masted (participle past)
masted (past)

From Old English mæst (“fallen nuts, food for swine”) and mæstan (“to fatten”), from West Germanic; probably related to meat.

der

Any individual tree which masted in a generally non-mast year would be subjected to the exclusive attention of the seed predators and so would be selected against.

1985, Michael Fenner, Seed ecology, page 33:

However, if this were true, all or most masting species (e.g., Fagus and Quercus) in a forest would have to mast in synchrony to be effective against generalist herbivores.

2004, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Christian Körner, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Forest Diversity and Function: Temperate and Boreal Systems, page 28:

Because dipterocarp seeds are winged and spin gracefully as they fall, the dispersal of millions of dipterocarp seeds during a masting event is one of the greatest spectacles that you can see on planet Earth.

2008, Chris Rowthorn, Muhammad Cohen, China Williams, Borneo, page 50:

(agriculture, forestry, ecology, of a population of plants) To produce a very large quantity of fruit or seed in certain years but not others.


switch

→ Gulf Arabic: سويچ (swīč)

→ German: Switch

Perhaps from Middle Dutch swijch (“twig”), first attested in c. 1592. The mechanical device for altering the direction of something sense is first attested in c. 1797, pertaining to pivoted rails on minecart railways, which were once wooden.

камута́тар

system allowing the interconnection of telephone lines

(genetics) A mechanism within DNA that activates or deactivates a gene.


acephal

From Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos, “headless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”). Compare French acéphale, Late Latin acephalus.


acephalocyst

From Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos, “headless”) + κύστις (kústis, “bladder”).

(zoology) A larval entozoön in the form of a subglobular or oval vesicle, or hydatid, filled with fluid, sometimes found in the tissues of man and the lower animals; -- so called from the absence of a head or visible organs on the vesicle. These cysts are the immature stages of certain tapeworms. Also applied to similar cysts of different origin.


acephalous

en-adj

acephalous (comparative more acephalous, superlative most acephalous)

more acephalous (comparative)
most acephalous (superlative)

From French acéphale, from Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos, “headless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”). By surface analysis, a- + -cephalous.

(zoology, applied to bivalve mollusks) Without a distinct head.

(botany) Having the style spring from the base, instead of from the apex, as is the case in certain ovaries


PLC

en-noun

PLC (countable and uncountable, plural PLCs)

(countable, biochemistry) Initialism of phospholipase C.


acerose

From Latin acerosus (“chaffy”), from acus (“chaff”) (genitive aceris).

/ˈæs.əˌɹoʊs/

/ˈæs.əˌɹoʊz/

(botany) Having the nature of chaff; chaffy.


acerose

As if from Latin acus (“needle”); compare French acéreux.

/ˈæs.əˌɹoʊs/

/ˈæs.əˌɹoʊz/

(botany) needle-shaped, having a sharp, rigid point, as the leaf of the pine.


acerous

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + κέρας (kéras, “horn”).

an acerous mollusk

an acerous insect


acervate

en-adj

acervate (comparative more acervate, superlative most acervate)

more acervate (comparative)
most acervate (superlative)

From Latin acervātus, perfect passive participle of acervō (“heap or pile up”), from acervus (“heap”).

(chiefly botany, rare) Heaped, or growing in heaps, or closely compacted clusters.


acetabuliform

From New Latin acetabuliformis, from acetabulum (“saucer”) + -form.

(botany) Shaped like a saucer or shallow cup.


acetabulum

en-noun

acetabulum (plural acetabulums or acetabula)

Learned borrowing from Latin acētābulum (“vinegar saucer, 1/48 congius”), from acētum (“vinegar”) + -bulum (“-bule: a vessel for”).

lbor

(zootomy) The cavity in which the leg of an insect is inserted at its articulation with the body.

acetàbul

(zootomy) A sucker of the sepia or cuttlefish and related animals.

(zootomy) The large posterior sucker of the leeches.

(zootomy) One of the lobes of the placenta in ruminating animals.


needle

From Middle English nedle, from Old English nǣdl, from Proto-West Germanic *nāþlu, from Proto-Germanic *nēþlō, from pre-Germanic *neh₁-tleh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₁- (“to spin, twist”).
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch naald (“needle”), German Nadel (“needle, pin, crochet hook”), German nähen (“sew”), Danish nål (“needle”), Norwegian nål (“needle”), Finnish neula (“needle”). Further related with Welsh nyddu, Latin nēre, Sanskrit स्नायति (snāyati, “wraps up, winds”). Related to snood.

cog

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

(entomology) Any of various species of damselfly of the genus Synlestes, endemic to Australia.


accumbent

en-adj

accumbent (comparative more accumbent, superlative most accumbent)

more accumbent (comparative)
most accumbent (superlative)

From Latin accumbō (“recline”), from ad- (“to”) + *cumbō (“recline”).

Distinguished from other genera, with accumbent cotyledons, in the same class and order, by the entire, nearly equal petals; and the dehiscent, nearly entirely pouch, of 2, 1- or many-seeded cells, a broad dissepiment (septum), and nearly flat valves.

1840, William Baxter, British phænogamous botany, volume 5:

(botany) Lying against anything, as one part of a leaf against another leaf


canescent

canescent (comparative more canescent, superlative most canescent)

more canescent (comparative)
most canescent (superlative)

From Latin canescens, present participle of canescere (“to become gray or white”).

(botany) Covered with short white or gray hairs; hoary.


accrete

Fruit coriaceous, crowned with accrete calyx

1881, Henry Baillon, “Jackia”, in The Natural History of Plants, volume 7:


accrescent

accrescent (comparative more accrescent, superlative most accrescent)

more accrescent (comparative)
most accrescent (superlative)

From Latin accrescens, accrescentis, present participle of accrescere, from ad + crescere (“to grow”).

The fruiting calyx is accrescent, covering all or most of the fruit.

2012, Bean, "A taxonomic revision of the Solanum echinatum group (Solanaceae)", Phytotaxa 57:33–50, doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.57.1.6

(botany) Which keeps growing past the point it normally would stop and begin wilting.


mating

The progeny of backcrosses and intercrosses will form some incrosses and some matings of other types.

1981, Henry Foster, The Mouse in Biomedical Research, page 96:

(zoology) Pairing of organisms for copulation.

Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:


phalanx

Borrowed from Latin phalanx or Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “battle order, array”). Doublet of phalange, planch, plancha, planche, and plank.

doublet

(botany) A bundle of stamens, in diadelphous and polyadelphous flowers.


binomial

Binominal nomenclature
Gerard of Cremona

Formed from Late Latin binōmium + -al. The derivation of binōmium is unclear. It was used by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century. Suggested sources are the Latin nōmen (“name”), the Ancient Greek νομός (nomós, “distribution, pasture”), or the Old French nom (“name”).
Gérard de Crémone used the word in his translation of aν Arabic commentary on Euclid, corresponding to the Greek "εκ δυο ονοματων". Compare binomy and binominal, as well as the French binôme. By surface analysis, bi- + -nomial.

der

Common name followed by Latin binomial in parentheses.

1991, Daniel W. Gade, “Weeds in Vermont as Tokens of Socioeconomic Change”, in Geographical Review, volume 81, number 2, →JSTOR, page 169:

(taxonomy) A scientific name at the rank of species, with two terms: a generic name and a specific name.


torus

Borrowed from Latin torus (“a round, swelling, elevation, protuberance”).

bor

(botany) The end of the peduncle or flower stalk to which the floral parts (or in the Asteraceae, the florets of a flower head) are attached.

(botany) The thickening of a membrane closing a wood-cell pit (as of gymnosperm tracheids) having the secondary cell wall arched over the pit cavity.


parachute

Borrowed from French parachute, from para- (“protection against”) (as in parasol) and chute (“fall”).

(zoology) A web or fold of skin extending between the legs of gliding mammals, such as the flying squirrel and colugo.


testa

en-noun

testa (plural testas or testae or testæ)

testas (plural)
testae (plural)
testæ (plural)

The testa develops from the tissue, the integument, originally surrounding the ovule.

The seeds are furnished with a reticulated testa, very much in appearance like that of the seeds of two closely-allied pericarps in the cabinet of my friend Mr. Ward, of Wellclose-square, the names of which I have been unable to obtain, but which present strong evidence of belonging to the Malvaceæ.

1840, James Scott Bowerbank, A History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay, page 30:

1969, C. W. Bennett, Seed Transmission of Plant Viruses, Alison Smith, Advances in Virus Research, Volume 14, page 224,
In tests with the Lincoln and Virginia varieties of cowpea, Crowley (1959) found that, in plants infected with bean southern mosaic virus before blossoming, the virus was present in nearly 100% of the testae and endosperms of seeds of both varieties, but could not be detected in the embryos.

Thus, two conditions must be satisfied for the testas to have this effect: contact between the testas and the radicle, and the presence of at least half of the testas.

1977, Commonwealth Scientific, Industrial Research Organization, Australian Journal of Plant Physiology, page 354:

2005, D. W. Dickson, D. De Waele, Nematode Parasites of Peanut, Michel Luc, Richard A. Sikora, John Bridge, Plant Parasitic Nematodes in Subtropical and Tropical Agriculture, page 419,
A. arachidis is a parasite of pods, testae, roots and hypocotyls, but not the cotyledons, embryos or other parts of the plant (Bos, 1977a; Bridge et al., 1977).

One of the most remarkable features of cultivated beans is the enormous range of testa colours and patterns which can be found.

2007, J. Smartt, “Evolution of American Phaseolus beans under domestication”, in Peter John Ucko, G. W. Dimbleby, editors, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, page 458:


punch

(entomology) Any of various riodinid butterflies of the genus Dodona of Asia.


matrix

matrices (plural)
matrixes (plural)
matrice (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English matris, matrice, matrix, from Old French matrice (“pregnant animal”), or from Latin mātrīx (“dam, womb”), both ultimately from māter (“mother”). Doublet of mother from Indo-European ancestor.
Slang usage coined with the 1999 sci-fi action film The Matrix.

基質 /基质

analytical chemistry: sampling environment

(biology) The material or tissue in which more specialized structures are embedded.

extracellular matrix
extracellular matrix

(biology) An extracellular matrix, the material or tissue between the cells of animals or plants.

matriksi

extracellular matrix — see also extracellular matrix

(biology) The medium in which bacteria are cultured.

(archaeology, paleontology) The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts, features, and other materials at a site.

matriu

archaeology: sediment surrounding and including materials


polynomial

/ˌpɒlɪˈnəʊmɪəl/

From poly- + -nomial, from νομός (nomós, “portion, part”), by analogy with binomial.

(taxonomy) A taxonomic designation (such as of a subspecies) consisting of more than two terms.


polynomial

/ˌpɒlɪˈnəʊmɪəl/

(taxonomy) Of a polynomial name or entity.


plastic

en-adj

plastic (comparative more plastic, superlative most plastic)

more plastic (comparative)
most plastic (superlative)
plastick (alternative)

From Latin plasticus (“of molding”), from Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós), from πλάσσω (plássō, “to mold, form”). Doublet of plastique.

(biology) Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.

приспособяващ се

biology: capable of adapting to varying conditions

A superb — and apparently wild, not plastic — Baikal Teal was located at RSPB Greylake in Somerset[.]

2024 January 14, Ian Reid, “South Aussie birding on the other side of the world”, in The Feathered Variety (blog), archived from the original on 2024-01-14:

(informal, birdwatching, of an individual bird) Escaped from captivity, rather than wild.

I was checking into my motel while a Red-whiskered Bulbul called outside – a Queensland plastic rarity which was somewhat amusing.

2018 August 12, Corwin Caelin, “The bucket list – a Wallaby and a Wombat – part 1”, in Go Birding (blog), archived from the original on 2018-08-23:

(informal, birdwatching, of a species or individual bird) Introduced, rather than native or naturally vagrant.


sail

en-noun

sail (countable and uncountable, plural sails)

From Middle English saile, sayle, seil, seyl, from Old English seġl, from Proto-West Germanic *segl, from Proto-Germanic *seglą. Cognate with West Frisian seil, Low German Segel, Dutch zeil, German Segel, Danish sejl, Swedish segel.

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

(paleontology) an outward projection of the spine, occurring in certain dinosaurs and synapsids

selkäpurje

paleontology: outward projection of the spine


obtuse

en-adj

obtuse (comparative obtuser or more obtuse, superlative obtusest or most obtuse)

obtuser (comparative)
more obtuse (comparative)
obtusest (superlative)
most obtuse (superlative)

clear

antonym(s) of “deadened, muffled, muted”

pointed

antonym(s) of “now chiefly botany, zoology”

From Middle English obtuse, from Latin obtūsus (“blunt, dull; obtuse”), past participle of obtundere, from obtundō (“to batter, beat, strike; to blunt, dull”), from ob- (“against”) (see ob-) + tundō (“to beat, strike; to bruise, crush, pound”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to hit; to push”)). More at obtund.

The Herb Pantagruelion hath a little Root somewhat hard and ruff, roundish, terminating in an obtuse and very blunt Point, and having some of its Veins, Strings or Filaments coloured with some spots of white, […]

1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], [Peter Anthony Motteux, transl.], “How Pantagruel Did Put Himself in a Readiness to Go to Sea; and of the Herb Named Pantagruelion”, in The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and His Sonne Pantagruel [...], volume II, London: Navarre Society, published 1921, →OCLC, book III, pages 57–58:

(now chiefly botany, zoology) Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.

(botany, zoology) Blunt, or rounded at the extremity.

If you put foure Spleets in a Hiue, then cut their backes, where they must leane one against another, to square angles, such as be foure in a circle: if but three, cut them to obtuse angles, such as are three in a circle: (you may readily try them, before you put them in, by Moulds made iust to those formes) and so will they stand close and firme together.

1623, Charles Butler, “Of the Hiues, and the Dressing of Them”, in The Feminine Monarchie: or, The Historie of Bees: Shewing Their Admirable Nature, and Properties, Their Generation, and Colonies, Their Gouernment, Loyaltie, Art, Industrie, Enemies, Warres, Magnanimitie, &c. […], London, →OCLC, chapter 3, section 11, footnote c; republished Mytholmroyd, U.K.: Northern Bee Books, 1985:

More-over, as the Buildings Ambligon / May more receive then Mansions Oxigon / (Because th' acute, and the rect-Angles too, / Stride not so wide as obtuse Angles doe) / So doth the Circle in his Circuit span / More room then any other Figure can.

1641, “The Columnes. The Fourth Part of the Second Day of the II. Weeke”, in Alexander B. Grosart, editor, The Complete Works of Joshua Sylvester: For the First Time Collected and Edited […], Edinburgh Univ. Press, published 1880, page 156, lines 198–203:

Obtuse angles of the through crossing. — The system of the two obtuse-angled points is especially termed the dead-crossing. […] The point itself, less liable to damage than that of the crossing proper, on account of its obtuse form and its position relatively to the wheels, acts the same part towards the tapered portion of the cut rail, as the wing-rail does with respect to the acute-angle of the crossing.

1877, Ch[arles] Couche, “Special Points in the Permanent Way”, in James N. Shoolbred, transl., Permanent Way Rolling Stock and Technical Working of Railways. Followed by an Appendix on Works of Art, volume I, London: Dulau & Co., 37, Soho Square; Paris: Dunod, 49, Quai des Augustins, →OCLC, § XIV (Rail-crossings), paragraph 258, page 316:

If he is standing close beside me I know that our separate axes of vision will meet at an acute angle in the centre of his object, and if we are further apart, at an obtuser angle.

1922, May Sinclair, “Space, Time and Other Consciousnesses”, in The New Idealism, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, section V, pages 255–256:

(geometry, specifically, of an angle) Larger than one, and smaller than two right angles, or more than 90° and less than 180°.

բութ

geometry: larger than 90° but less than 180°

Unless A lies in that part of a semi-infinite strip bounded by AB outside a semi-circle of diameter AB, the triangle is obtuse, so that the probability of getting an obtuse triangle is equal to 1.

2013, Edward J. Barbeau, “Probability and Statistics”, in More Fallacies, Flaws, and Flimflam (Spectrum Series), Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, →ISBN, page 128:

(geometry, by ellipsis) Obtuse-angled, having an obtuse angle.

For we see a Feather or a Rush drawn along the Lip or Cheek, doth tickle; whereas a thing more obtuse, or a touch more hard, doth not.

1670, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [Francis Bacon], “Century VIII”, in Sylva Sylvarum, or, A Natural History, in Ten Centuries: Whereunto is Newly Added, the History Natural and Experimental of [Life] and Death, or of the Prolongation of Life. […], 9th and last edition, London: William Rawley, →OCLC, paragraph 766, page 161:

See then the quiver broken and decay'd, / In which are kept our arrows! Rusting there / In wild disorder, and unfit for use, / […] Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine!

1817, William Cowper, The Task, London: John Sharpe, page 58:

Yet you do not brighten what would otherwise be dull, impart a keenness to the obtusest point, and diffuse a general lustre?

1932, Ernest Bramah, chapter XV, in The Moon of Much Gladness: Related by Kai Lung, London: Cassell and Co., →OCLC; republished [s.l.]: Read Books, 2013, →ISBN, section IV:


acute

acute (comparative acuter or more acute, superlative acutest or most acute)

acuter (comparative)
more acute (comparative)
acutest (superlative)
most acute (superlative)

From Late Middle English acute (“of a disease or fever: starting suddenly and lasting for a short time; of a humour: irritating, sharp”), from Latin acūta, from acūtus (“sharp, sharpened”), perfect passive participle of acuō (“to make pointed, sharpen, whet”), from acus (“needle, pin”). The word is cognate to ague (“acute, intermittent fever”).
As regards the noun, which is derived from the verb, compare Middle English acūte (“severe but short-lived fever; of blood: corrosiveness, sharpness; musical note of high pitch”).

cog

204. Eremophila abietina […] Corolla 23–35 mm long, cream or very pale lilac, lobes faintly metallic bluish green or lilac, tube occasionally brownish, prominently purple spotted; outer and inner surfaces glandular-pubescent; lobes acute, lobe of lower lip strongly reflexed.

2007 April 24, R[obert] J[ames] Chinnock, “Taxonomic Treatment of the Family Myoporaceae R. Br.”, in Eremophila and Allied Genera: A Monograph of the Plant Family Myoporaceae, Dural Delivery Centre, N.S.W.: Rosenberg Publishing, →ISBN, section XXV (Eremophila sec. Pulchrisepalae (12 spp.)), page 622:

(botany) With the sides meeting directly to form an acute angle (at an apex or base).


pyramid

en-verb

pyramid (third-person singular simple present pyramids, present participle pyramiding, simple past and past participle pyramided)

pyramids (present singular third-person)
pyramiding (participle present)
pyramided (participle past)
pyramided (past)
piramis (alternative obsolete)
pyramis (alternative obsolete)

From French pyramide, from Old French piramide, from Latin pȳramis, pȳramidis, from Ancient Greek πῡραμίς (pūramís), possibly from πῡρός (pūrós, “wheat”) + ἀμάω (amáō, “reap”) or from Egyptian pr-m-ws (“height of a pyramid”), from pr (“(one that) comes forth”) + m (“from”) + ws (“height”). Schenkel and K. Lang proposed hypothetical Coptic *ⲡⲓⲣⲁⲙ (*piram) or *ⲫⲣⲁⲙ (*phram) derived from Egyptian mr via metathesis as a source of πῡραμίς (pūramís) while Schenkel also suggested it being the source of Arabic هرم although the latter is considered far-fetched by Takacs.

der

(transitive, genetics) To combine (a series of genes) into a single genotype.


ecology

en-noun

ecology (countable and uncountable, plural ecologies)

ecologies (plural)
oecology (alternative archaic)
œcology (alternative archaic)

Calque of German Ökologie (coined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel), from Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos, “house”) + -λογία (-logía, “study of”). By surface analysis, eco- + -logy.

As a graduate student, he was working on a thesis: The Ecology of the Black Creek Area. He had to investigate the relationships, past and present, of men and plants and animals in this region.

As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.

2012 January 7, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2013-10-03, page 31:

(biology) The branch of biology dealing with the relationships of organisms with their environment and with each other.


genetic

/d͡ʒəˈnɛtɪk/

/d͡ʒɪˈnɛtɪk/

Coined from genesis, similarly to antithesis, antithetic. Reflects Ancient Greek γενετικός (genetikós), from γένεσις (génesis) + -κός (-kós). Ultimately from Ancient Greek γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “I come into being”). By surface analysis, gene + -tic or gen(esis) + -etic.

der

Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.

2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

(genetics) Relating to genetics or genes.


stressor

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-stressor.wav

These children are constitutionally sad. Other children, like Luke, develop depressive feelings out of the blue or in response to some mild stressor.

1997, Edward M. Hallowell, When You Worry About the Child You Love, page 162:

These paradoxical pleasures […] are acquired by controlling one's exposure to the stressor in gradually increasing doses.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 670:

Plenty of people see hosting a large group as a stressor.

2023 May 1, Reem Kassis, “What Home Cooking Does That Restaurants Can’t”, in The Atlantic:

(psychology, biology) An environmental condition or influence that stresses (i.e. causes stress for) an organism.


cruciform

(genetics) A cross shape in DNA; a Holliday junction.


cross

→ Japanese: クロス (kurosu)

From Middle English cross, cros, from Old English cros (“rood, cross”), from Old Norse kross, from Old Irish cros, from Latin crux (crucī). In this sense displaced native Middle English rood, from Old English rōd; see rood. Compare Welsh croes, Irish crois.
The sense of "two intersecting lines drawn or cut on a surface; two lines intersecting at right angles" without regard to religious signification develops from the late 14th century.
Cognates
*Icelandic kross (“cross”)
*Faroese krossur (“cross”)
*Norwegian Nynorsk kross, kors (“cross”)
*Danish kors (“cross”)
*Swedish kors (“cross”)
*North Frisian kross, korss (“cross”)
*Saterland Frisian Krjuus, Kjus (“cross”)
*West Frisian krús (“cross”)
*Dutch kruis (“cross”)
*German Low German Krüüz (“cross”)
*German Kreuz (“cross”)

(biology) An animal or plant produced by crossbreeding or cross-fertilization.

հիբրիդ

biology: animal or plant produced by crossbreeding or cross-fertilization

hybrid

production of cross-breeding or -fertilization


cross

en-verb

cross (third-person singular simple present crosses, present participle crossing, simple past and past participle crossed)

crosses (present singular third-person)
crossing (participle present)
crossed (participle past)
crossed (past)
cross (infinitive)
cross (first-person present singular)
crossed (first-person past singular)
cross (present second-person singular)
crossest (archaic present second-person singular)
crossed (past second-person singular)
crossedst (archaic past second-person singular)
crosses (present singular third-person)
crosseth (archaic present singular third-person)
crossed (past singular third-person)
cross (plural present)
crossed (past plural)
cross (present subjunctive)
crossed (past subjunctive)
cross (imperative present)
crossing (participle present)
crossed (participle past)

They managed to cross a sheep with a goat.

Question: What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?
Answer : El-if-I-no.

1978, Kim Applegate Peggs, Carpenter, volume 96, page 16:

(biology) To cross-fertilize or crossbreed.

кръстосвам

biology: to cross-fertilize or crossbreed


cohort

From Latin cohors (stem cohort-); borrowed into Old English as coorta, but reintroduced into Middle English as cōhort and chōors via Old French cohorte. Doublet of court.

(taxonomy) A natural group of orders of organisms, less comprehensive than a class.


nuclear

From Latin nū̆cleus, a contraction of the adjective nuculeus, masculine of feminine nuculea (“pertaining to a small nut”) from nucula + adjectival suffix -eus, -ea, -eum. The Latin nucula + -āris adds up to nuculāris, a term that in English becomes nucular; the Latin nuculea + -āris, becomes Latin nuculeāris (“relative to what pertains to small nut”), later contracted into nuclear. By surface analysis, nucle(us) + -ar = nucle- + -ar. Compare muscle and Latin mūsculus; muscular and mūsculāris.

cog

However, the DNA in a bacterial cell is a single circular molecule and there is no separate nuclear compartment.

2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 17:

(biology) Pertaining to the nucleus of a cell.


primary

/ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹi/

Borrowed from Latin prīmārius (“of the first (rank); chief, principal; excellent”), from prīmus (first; whence the English adjective prime) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French primaire, primer, and premier. Doublet of premier.

bor+

`Good Lord, look at that swiftlet, it's got two primaries missing from its left wing!'

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 115:

(ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.


noise

en-noun

noise (countable and uncountable, plural noises)

From Middle English noyse, noise, from Old French noise (“a dispute, wrangle, strife, noise”), of uncertain origin. According to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (“disgust, nausea”); according to others, from Latin noxia (“hurt, harm, damage, injury”); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense.

der

(genetics) The measured level of variation in gene expression among cells, regardless of source, within a supposedly identical population.


fate

en-noun

fate (countable and uncountable, plural fates)

From Middle English fate, from Latin fāta (“prediction”), plural of fātum, from fātus (“spoken”), from for (“to speak”). In this sense, displaced native Old English wyrd, whence Modern English weird.

It’s important to research chemical fate because chemical fate is the best tool we have for understanding and managing human health risks or environmental damage caused by chemical release.

2019 July 12, Danielle Freeman, “Archived copy”, in Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, archived from the original on 2022-10-11:

(biochemistry) The products of a chemical reaction in their final form in the biosphere.


perennial

The adjective is borrowed from Latin perennis (“lasting through the whole year or for several years, perennial; continual, everlasting, perpetual”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Perennis is derived from per- (“completive or intensifying prefix with the sense of doing something all the way through or entirely”) + annus (“year; season, time”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂et- (“to go”)). By surface analysis, per- + -ennial.
The noun is derived from the adjective.
Cognates
* Middle French pérenne (modern French pérenne (“lasting through the whole year, perennial”))
* Italian perenne (“lasting for a long time”)
* Spanish perenne (“eternal; permanent; a perennial plant”)

tilbagevendende

appearing or recurring again and again — see also recurrent

(botany) Of a plant: active throughout the year, or having a life cycle of more than two growing seasons.

шматгадо́вы

of a plant: active throughout the year, or having a life cycle of more than two growing seasons


perennial

One would have supposed from the appearance of the country at the end of the first season after the eruption that practically all plants except the trees and bushes had been destroyed, and that revegetation must be due to new seedlings started on the ash. Such, however, is not the case. Excavation of the root systems of the new plants shows that they are old perennials which have come through the ash from the old soil.

1917 January, Robert F[iske] Griggs, “The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes”, in National Geographic, volume XXXI, number 1, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society […], →ISSN, →OCLC:

(botany) A plant that is active throughout the year, or has a life cycle of more than two growing seasons.

многогоди́шно расте́ние

plant active throughout the year, or has a life cycle of more than two growing seasons


berry

→ Indonesian: beri

→ Japanese: ベリー (berī)

desc

→ Thai: เบอร์รี (bəə-rîi)

→ Thai: เบอร์รี (bəə-rîi)

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *bazją
Proto-West Germanic *baʀi
Old English berġe
Middle English berye
English berry
From Middle English berye, from Old English berġe, from Proto-West Germanic *baʀi, from Proto-Germanic *bazją.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bäie, West Flemish beier, German Beere, Icelandic ber, Danish bær.
The slang sense "police car" may come from the lights on the vehicles' roofs.

etymon

the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice

the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice

(botany) A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.

я́гада

botany: soft fruit developing from a superior ovary and containing seeds not encased in pits


nucleic acid

en-noun

nucleic acid (countable and uncountable, plural nucleic acids)

nucleic + acid; named for the fact that in eukaryotes, some of the important actions of such acids are especially associated with the nucleus of the cell.

(biochemistry, genetics) Any acidic, chainlike biological macromolecule consisting of multiple repeat units of phosphoric acid, sugar and purine and pyrimidine bases; they are involved in the preservation, replication and expression of hereditary information in every living cell

azido nukleiko

acidic chainlike biological macromolecule


botanist

A German botanist gave 'Gandoge' as the locality of an American plant; a package sent by express to 'Sevaber' (an English name), and a letter posted to the town of 'Scur E Quss, Nu Yourck,' arrived safely; and I have seen a handboard directing the traveller to the English-named town of 'Bintgrof'.

2020, S.S Haldeman, Pennsylvania Dutch, page 9:

It’s one of the world’s longest-running experiments, having already gone on for 142 years. And the botanists in East Lansing hope that it will last for at least another 80.

2021 April 21, Cara Giaimo, “One of the World’s Oldest Science Experiments Comes Up From the Dirt”, in The New York Times:

(botany) A person engaged in botany, the scientific study of plants.


lumen

Borrowed from Latin lūmen (“light, an opening”). Use as a unit was first adopted by French physicist André Blondel in 1894.

(botany) The cavity bounded by a plant cell wall.


Burmese

Burmese (plural)
Birmese (alternative obsolete)

(zoology) A medium-sized, short-haired domestic cat breed, originating in Thailand.


limb

The corolla limb of the moonvine Calonyction aculeatum is normally undivided.

1945, “A new form of the moonvine Calonyction aculeatum with divided corolla limb, and length-of-day behavior and flowering of the common form”, in Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, volume 35, number 2:

(botany) The border or upper spreading part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal; blade.


grain

grain (countable and uncountable, plural grains)

From Middle English greyn, grayn, grein, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin grānum (“seed”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”). Doublet of corn, gram, granum, and grao.

𒊺

harvested seeds of various grass-related food crops

гран

unit of mass notionally based on grain's weight

(botany) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.


radius

Borrowed from Latin radius (“ray”). Doublet of ray.

(zoology) The lighter bone (or fused portion of bone) in the forelimb of an animal.

(entomology) One of the major veins of the insect wing, between the subcosta and the media; the vein running along the costal edge of the discal cell.


tern

PIE word
 *tréyes
The noun is derived from Late Middle English terne (“throw of a die or dice showing the number three”), from Old French terne (“gathering of three people; trinity”) (modern French terne), from Latin ternās, the accusative feminine plural of ternī (“three each; three at a time”), from ter (“thrice”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + -ī (from -us (suffix forming adjectives)).
The adjective is either derived from the noun, or directly from Latin ternī (“three each; three at a time”); see above.

der

tern flowers    tern leaves

a tern schooner, one with three masts

(chiefly botany, rare) Consisting of three components; ternate, threefold, triple.


knockout

knockouts (plural)
knock-out (alternative)

→ Belarusian: нака́ўт (nakáŭt)

desc

→ Portuguese: nocaute, knockout (unadapted spelling)

→ Russian: нока́ут (nokáut)

→ Spanish: nocaut

→ Ukrainian: нока́ут (nokáut)

→ Vietnamese: nốc ao

(genetics) The deactivation of a particular gene.

(genetics) A creature engineered with a particular gene deactivated.


knockout

The result is a so-called knockout mouse, reared with a single gene silenced, the better to reveal that gene's true purpose.

1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2004, page 255:

(genetics) Designating an organism in which a particular gene has been removed or deactivated.


signal

From Old French segnal, seignal or Medieval Latin signāle; noun use of the neuter of Late Latin signālis, from Latin signum; verb use from 1805, as a shortened from signalize (1650s).

(biochemistry) A signalling interaction between cells


ambisexual

en-adj

ambisexual (comparative more ambisexual, superlative most ambisexual)

more ambisexual (comparative)
most ambisexual (superlative)

From ambi- + -sexual; in modern senses relating to human sexuality, influenced by bisexual.

However, the question must be asked: at which stage in the life-history of an ambisexual (hermaphroditic) fish does sex differentiation take place?

2012, U. Müller, W. Franke, Mechanisms of Gonadal Differentiation in Vertebrates, page 84:


Calabrian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Pleistocene epoch.


aggregate

aggregate (comparative more aggregate, superlative most aggregate)

more aggregate (comparative)
most aggregate (superlative)

From Middle English aggregat(e) (“aggregated”, used as the past participle of aggregaten), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

inh

used as the past participle of <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">aggregaten</i>

/ˈæɡ.ɹɪ.ɡət/

(botany) Composed of several florets within a common involucre, as in the daisy; or of several carpels formed from one flower, as in the raspberry.


egret

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman egret, aigrette (“egret”), from Old Occitan aigreta, diminutive of aigron (“heron”), from Medieval Latin hairo, from Frankish *haigro (“heron”). Cognate with Old High German heigaro (“heron”), Old English hrāgra (“heron”). Doublet of aigrette. More at heron.

(botany) The flying feathery or hairy crown of seeds or achenes, such as the down of the thistle.


axis

Borrowed from Latin axis (“axle, axis”) in the 16th century.

(botany) The main stem or central part about which organs or plant parts such as branches are arranged


reptile

From Middle English reptil, from Old French reptile, from Late Latin rēptile, neuter of reptilis (“creeping”), from Latin rēpō (“to creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *rep- (“to creep, slink”) (Pokorny; Watkins, 1969).

der

(zoology, scientifically speaking) Any member of Reptilia, including birds.


rhombus

Learned borrowing from Latin rhombus, from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos, “rhombus, spinning top”). Doublet of rhomb and rhumb.

romb

A parallelogram having all sides of equal length

the greedy Tuberon or Shark arm'd with a double row of venemous teeth pursues them, directed by a little Rhombus, Musculus or pilot-fish that scuds to and fro to bring intelligence [...].

1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section I:

(zoology, now rare) Any of several flatfishes, including the brill and turbot, once considered part of the genus Rhombus, now in Scophthalmus.

(zoology, archaic) Snails, now in genus Conus or family Conidae.


climber

From Middle English climber, clymber, clymbare (“one who climbs, climber”), from climben (“to climb; to ascend, fly upward, rise; to slope upwards; to approach God in prayer; to advance; to overcome, triumph; to aspire; to be presumptuous”) + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns). The English word is analysable as climb (verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

af

Someone or something that climbs (such as a mountain climber).

(botany) A plant such as a vine that climbs upwards as it grows by attaching itself to some support.

пълзящо растение

(ornithology) A bird that climbs, such as a parrot or woodpecker; specifically (archaic), a bird having two toes pointing forward, and two pointing backward, formerly regarded as being from the order Scansores or Zygodactyli (now obsolete as the birds formerly in this order have been reclassified into different orders); a zygodactyl.


hybrid

From Latin hybrida, a variant of hibrida (“a mongrel; specifically, offspring of a tame sow and a wild boar”). Attested since 1601, but rare before c. 1850.

mulard

of a domestic variety of mallard × female muscovy

(biology) Offspring resulting from cross-breeding different entities, e.g. two different species or two purebred parent strains.

هَجِين

biology: offspring resulting from crossbreeding


lip

en-noun

lip (countable and uncountable, plural lips)

From Middle English lippe, from Old English lippa, lippe (“lip”), from Proto-West Germanic *lippjō (“lip”), from Proto-Germanic *lepô, from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely, droop, sag”).
Cognate with West Frisian lippe (“lip”), Dutch lip (“lip”), German Lippe and Lefze (“lip”), Swedish läpp (“lip”), Norwegian leppe (“lip”),
Danish læbe (“lip”),
Latin labium (“lip”).

der

there's many a slip between the cup and the lip

there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip

(botany) One of the two opposite divisions of a labiate corolla.

(botany) A distinctive lower-appearing of the three true petals of an orchid.

(zoology) One of the edges of the aperture of a univalve shell.


horn

en-noun

horn (countable and uncountable, plural horns)

From Middle English horn, horne, from Old English horn, from Proto-West Germanic *horn, from Proto-Germanic *hurną. Compare West Frisian hoarn, Dutch hoorn, Low German Hoorn, horn, German Horn, Danish and Swedish horn, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽 (haurn).
Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂-nó-m, from *ḱerh₂- (“head, horn”). Compare Breton kern (“horn”), Latin cornū, Ancient Greek κέρας (kéras), Proto-Slavic *sьrna, Old Church Slavonic сьрна (sĭrna, “roedeer”), Hittite [script needed] (surna, “horn”), Persian سر (sar), Sanskrit शृङ्ग (śṛṅga, “horn”). Doublet of corn (“callus”), corno, and cornu.
(telephone): From the horn-shaped earpieces of old communication systems that used air tubes.

doublet

(countable, zootomy) A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.

(botany) An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).


achilous

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip”).


wildebeest

en-noun

wildebeest (plural wildebeest or wildebeests or (rare) wildebeesten)

wildebeest (plural)
wildebeests (plural)
wildebeesten (plural rare)

→ Japanese: ウィルドビースト (wirudobīsuto)

Borrowed in the early 19th century from early Afrikaans wildebeest, modern wildebees (literally “wild ox”), with influence from beast.

Dassoud […] stepped forward with a lash composed of the caudal appendages of half a dozen wildebeests.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 3:

Later that morning, they wrapped Ian in a wildebeest skin and buried him near a shepherd tree.

2013, Eleanor Morse, White Dog Fell From the Sky:


cheetah

cheetahs (plural)
chetah (alternative)
cheeta (alternative)

→ Portuguese: chita

→ Spanish: chita

Borrowed from Hindi चीता (cītā, “leopard, panther”), ultimately from Sanskrit चित्र (citra, “multicolored, speckled”) (akin to Old High German haitar (“bright”) > German heiter; Old Norse heiðr (“bright”)) + Sanskrit काय (kāya, “body”), thus “having a spotted body”.

der

Acinonyx jubatus
Acinonyx jubatus#Translingual

(zoology) A distinctive member (Acinonyx jubatus) of the cat family, slightly smaller than the leopard, but with proportionately longer limbs and a smaller head; native to Africa and southeast Asia (where it is nearly extinct) and also credited with being the fastest terrestrial animal.


warthog

(zoology) A wild pig of the genus Phacochoerus, native to Africa.


flag

en-verb

flag (third-person singular simple present flags, present participle flagging, simple past and past participle flagged)

flags (present singular third-person)
flagging (participle present)
flagged (participle past)
flagged (past)

From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape.
Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

During estrus, most bitches will flirt with males by backing up to them, flagging their tails in the males’ faces, urinating frequently, and generally acting seductive.

1996, The Complete Book of Dog Breeding, page 9:

She will avert her tail to the side (flagging), standing still when the male mounts.

2011 January 3, Pete Haswell, “Life and Behaviour of Wolves”, in Wolf Print:

(biology) In female canids, to signal mating readiness by moving the tail aside to expose the vulva.


mad cow disease

(colloquial, veterinary, pathology) Synonym of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

جُنُون البَقَر

informal: bovine spongiform encephalopathy


apollo

(entomology) Any of several papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius, especially Parnassius apollo of Eurasia (also known as the mountain apollo).


type

→ Japanese: タイプ

→ Korean: 타입 (taip)

From Middle English type (“symbol, figure, emblem”), from Latin typus, from Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos, “mark, impression, type”), from τύπτω (túptō, “I strike, beat”).

tyyppiyksilö

biology: individual representative of its taxonomic group

...thus Stearn has designated Linnaeus as the type specimen of Homo sapiens

2009 March 20, Greg Mayer, “Who is the type specimen of Homo sapiens?”, in Why Evolution Is True:

Musca domestica is the type-species of Musca, a genus originally created by Linnaeus for a variety of higher Diptera, many of which are now known to be in other families.

2015 December 16, “What's in a fly?”, in Natural History Museum:

(taxonomy) Something, often a specimen, selected as an objective anchor to connect a scientific name to a taxon; this need not be representative or typical.


minor

minors (plural)
miner (alternative)
maner (alternative)
minore (alternative)
minour (alternative)
mynor (alternative)
mynour (alternative)
mynowr (alternative)
mi (alternative)

From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.

(entomology) Any of various noctuid moths in Europe and Asia, chiefly in the Oligia and Mesoligia genera.

(entomology) A leaf-cutter worker ant intermediate in size between a minim and a media.


major

majors (plural)
majour (alternative obsolete)

[ˈmeɪ̯d͡ʒɚ(ɹ)]

[ˈmeɪ̯d͡ʒə(ɹ)]

[ˈmæɪ̯d͡ʒə(ɹ)]

From Middle English major, from Latin maior, comparative of magnus (“great, large; noble, important”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs (“greater”), comparative of *meǵh₂- (“great”). Compare West Frisian majoar (“major”), Dutch majoor (“major”), French majeur. Doublet of mayor.

pääaineopiskelija

student specializing in a specified subject

(entomology) A large leaf-cutter ant that acts as a soldier, defending the nest.


process

→ Japanese: プロセス (purosesu)

From Middle English proces, from Old French procés (“journey”), from Latin prōcessus (“course, progression”), nominalization of prōcēdō (“proceed, advance”).

(biology) Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.

proses

successive physiological responses to keep or restore health


code

en-verb

code (third-person singular simple present codes, present participle coding, simple past and past participle coded)

codes (present singular third-person)
coding (participle present)
coded (participle past)
coded (past)

From Middle English code (“system of law”), from Old French code (“system of law”), from Latin cōdex, later form of caudex (“the stock or stem of a tree, a board or tablet of wood smeared over with wax, on which the ancients originally wrote; hence, a book, a writing.”). Doublet of codex.

(genetics, intransitive) To encode a protein.


producer

→ Azerbaijani: prodüser

→ Danish: producer

→ Dutch: producer

→ Hungarian: producer

→ Japanese: プロデューサー (purodyūsā)

desctree

→ Russian: продю́сер (prodjúser)
→ Kazakh: продюсер (prodüser)

/pɹəˈdʒuːsə/

(biology) An organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple molecules and an external source of energy.


form

en-noun

form (countable and uncountable, plural forms)

→ Korean: 폼 (pom)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: form

From Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc.”), borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma (“shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.”).
In sense "division grouping school students" (now dated), derived from public school nomenclature later adopted by state schools. It is sometimes said to be from the sense of "bench", where students of certain ages would sit together, though this is disputed, or alternatively from the sense of "established method of expression or practice".

der

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery


historical

en-adj

historical (comparative more historical, superlative most historical)

more historical (comparative)
most historical (superlative)
historicall (alternative)

From Latin historicus (“historical”) + -al (forming adjectives denoting of or relating to). By surface analysis, history + -ical.

suf

Of, concerning, or in accordance with the past generally.

(obsolete, biology) Synonym of hereditary or evolutionary.


guest

From Middle English gest, from Old Norse gestr, which replaced or was merged with Old English ġiest, both from Proto-Germanic *gastiz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis (“stranger, guest, host, someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality”). Cognate with German Gast (“guest”), Norwegian gjest (“guest”). Doublet of host, from Latin.

der

(zoology) Any insect that lives in the nest of another without compulsion and usually not as a parasite.


stamen

From New Latin stāmen, from Ancient Greek στη̃μα (stē̃ma).

(botany) In flowering plants, a male reproductive structure in a flower that produces pollen, typically consisting of an anther and a filament.


concatenate

From the perfect passive participle stem of Latin concatēnāre (“to link or chain together”), from con- (“with”) + catēnō (“chain, bind”), from catēna (“a chain”).

uder

The Nostocoid type consists of small rounded blue-green cells not over 5p. in diameter and arranged in chains which are often much broken up in the cephalodium, so that the concatenate arrangement is hardly apparent.

1947, Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, A monograph of the lichen genus Placopsis Nyl, page 166:

(biology) Joined together as if in a chain.


stalk

From Middle English stalke, stelke, stalk, perhaps from Old English *stealc, *stielc, *stealuc, from Proto-West Germanic *staluk, *stalik, from Proto-Germanic *stalukaz, *stalikaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *stalô, *staluz (“support, stem, stalk”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stand; be stiff; stud, post, trunk, stake, stem, stalk”). Cognate with Old High German *stelh in wazzarstelh (“wagtail”), Danish stilk (“stalk, stem”), Swedish stjälk (“stalk, stem”), Icelandic stilkur (“stalk, stem”).
Related also to Middle English stale (“ladder upright, stalk”), Old English stalu (“wooden upright”), Middle Low German stal, stale (“chair leg”), Old English stela (“stalk”), Dutch steel (“stalk”), German Stiel (“stalk”), Albanian shtalkë (“crossbeam, board used as a door hinge”), Welsh telm (“frond”), Ancient Greek στειλειή (steileiḗ, “beam”), Old Armenian ստեղն (stełn, “trunk, stalk”).

varsi

something resembling the stalk of a plant

A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.

kaula

zoology: stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids

The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.

The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.

tappi

zoology: peduncle of the eyes of decapod


achlamydate

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + χλαμύς (khlamús, “cloak, mantle”).

an achlamydate gastropod


achlamydeous

From a- + Ancient Greek χλαμύδος (khlamúdos, “mantle, cloak”) + -ous; a- + chlamydeous.


ursine

en-adj

ursine (comparative more ursine, superlative most ursine)

more ursine (comparative)
most ursine (superlative)

Mid 16th century, from Latin ursīnus, adjectival form of ursus (“bear”) + -ine.

(entomology, of caterpillars) Covered in stiff bristles.


wort

PIE word
 *wréh₂ds
From Middle English wort, wurt, wyrte (“any herb or plant; herb or plant used as food or medicine; (specifically) cabbage or vegetable of the genus Brassica; (chiefly plural) dish of cooked vegetables”) [and other forms], from Old English wyrt (“a plant; vegetable; herb, spice”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *wurti (“a root; a spice”), from Proto-Germanic *wrōts (“a root”), from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds (“a root”). Doublet of root and related to orchard.
Cognates
* Old Dutch wort (“herb; plant”) (Middle Dutch wort (“herb; root”))
* Old High German wurz (“herb; root; spice”) (Middle High German wurz, modern German Wurz)
* Old Norse jurt, urt (“herb”) (Icelandic jurt, Norwegian urt, Old Danish urt (modern Danish urt), Old Swedish yrt (“plant”) (modern Swedish ört))
* Old Saxon wurt (“herb; plant; root”) (Middle Low German wort, wurt)

nb...

uert, uuort, uurt, wart, wert, werte, wirte, woort, woorte, word, worte, worth, worthe, wortt, wortte, wourt, wourte, wourth, wrt, wrte, wurd, wurte, wurth, wwrt, wyrt, (Early Middle English) virt, wirt, wvrt

nb...

(Late Old English) uuert, uert, virt, vyrt, (Old English) wurt, (Old English, rare) weort, wyirt, (chiefly Kent) wert, (in compounds) wort, (Early Old English) uuyrt, uyrt, wirt, wyrt

cog

(by extension, botany) A non-vascular plant growing on land from the division Anthocerotophyta (the hornworts) or Marchantiophyta (liverworts); an anthocerotophyte or marchantiophyte.


hawk

Sranan Tongo: aka

From Middle English hauk, hauke, hawke, havek, from Old English hafoc (“hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *habuk, from Proto-Germanic *habukaz, controversially derived from Proto-Indo-European *kopuǵos, perhaps ultimately derived from *keh₂p- (“seize”).
See also West Frisian hauk, German Low German Haavke, Dutch havik, German Habicht, Swedish hök, Danish høg, Norwegian Bokmål hauk, Norwegian Nynorsk hauk, Faroese heykur, Icelandic haukur, Finnish haukka, Estonian haugas; also Latin capys, capus (“bird of prey”), Albanian gabonjë, shkabë (“eagle”), Russian ко́бец (kóbec, “falcon”), Polish kobuz (“Eurasian Hobby”)).

(entomology) Any of various species of dragonfly of the genera Apocordulia and Austrocordulia, endemic to Australia.


achromatic

en-adj

achromatic (comparative more achromatic, superlative most achromatic)

more achromatic (comparative)
most achromatic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek ἀχρωμάτιστος (akhrōmátistos, “uncolored”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + χρῶμα (khrôma, “color”), equivalent to a- + chromatic; compare French achromatique.

der

ἀχρωμάτιστος

(biology, of tissue) Uncolored; not absorbing color from a fluid.


achromatin

en-noun

achromatin (countable and uncountable, plural achromatins)

(biology) Tissue that is not stained by fluid dyes.


identify

en-verb

identify (third-person singular simple present identifies, present participle identifying, simple past and past participle identified)

identifies (present singular third-person)
identifying (participle present)
identified (participle past)
identified (past)

From French identifier, from Medieval Latin identicus + Latin faciō.

A recent biological inventory uncovered 41 species and 2 subspecies of insects new to science and many species not before identified in the State of Washington.

(transitive, biology) To establish the taxonomic classification of an organism.

identifiseer

biology: to establish the taxonomic classification of an organism


antagonist

[ɛə̯nˈtæɡənɪst]

From Latin antagonista, from Ancient Greek ἀνταγωνιστής (antagōnistḗs, “opponent”) (ἀντί (antí, “against”) + ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”)), from ἀνταγωνίζομαι (antagōnízomai, “to antagonize”).

der

ἀνταγωνιστής

2001: The calcium antagonists represent one of the top ten classes of prescription drugs in terms of commercial value, with worldwide sales of nearly $10 billion in 1999. — Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2001, p. 41)

(biochemistry) A chemical that binds to a receptor but does not produce a physiological response, blocking the action of agonist chemicals.


mange

en-noun

mange (usually uncountable, plural manges)

From Middle English manjewe, manjeue, from Old French manjue, derived from mangier (“to eat”) (modern French manger (“to eat”)), from Latin manducare.

Not yet come! [the] worrying of wolves, biting of mad dogs, the manges, and the—

1621, William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, John Ford, The Witch of Edmonton:

(veterinary medicine) A skin disease of nonhuman mammals caused by parasitic mites (Sarcoptes spp., Demodecidae spp.).


peep

From Middle English pepen. Compare Dutch piepen (“peep”), German Low German piepen (“to peep”), German piepen and pfeifen, all probably onomatopoeic.

(birdwatching, colloquial) A sandpiper or other small wader.


included

(botany) Enclosed, not protruding, e.g. stamens within the corolla.


deciduous

From Latin dēciduus (“falling down or off”), from dēcidō (“fall down”).

(biology, anatomy) Describing a part that falls off, or is shed, at a particular time or stage of development.

գցվող

describing a part that falls off, or is shed

. Compare caducous.

a deciduous tree

(botany) Of or pertaining to trees which lose their leaves in winter or the dry season.

սաղարթավոր

of or pertaining to trees which lose their leaves in winter or the dry season

Laub-

as in Laubbaum (deciduous tree) or Laubwald (deciduous forest)


honeycomb

honeycomb (countable and uncountable, plural honeycombs)

Alhambra
Oxford English Dictionary
United States Army

The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”. The verb is derived from the noun.

kennosto

something resembling honeycomb in having numerous cells or small holes

hunaja

something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; something desirable or pleasant

A rudimentall reſemblance hereof there is in the cruciated and rugged folds of the Reticulum, or Net-like Ventricle of ruminating horned animals, vvhich is the ſecond in order, and culinarily called the Honey-comb.

[1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 149:

Of the four ſtomachs vvith vvhich ruminant animals are furniſhed, the firſt is called the paunch, vvhich receives the food after it has been ſlightly chevved; the ſecond is called the honeycomb, and is properly nothing more than a continuation of the former; […]

[1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Ruminating Animals”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 3:

honeycomb stomach
honeycomb stomach#English

(countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

(countable, zoology) Ellipsis of honeycomb stomach (“the reticulum or second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant”).


clitoris

en-noun

clitoris (plural clitorises or clitorides)

/klɪˈtɔːɹɪs/

From post-classical Latin clītoris (16th century), or its source, Koine Greek κλειτορίς (kleitorís), probably from Ancient Greek κλείω (kleíō, “I sheathe, shut”), in reference to its being covered by the labia minora.
The related noun form κλείς (kleís) has a second meaning of "a key, a latch or hook (to close a door)." Wooden pegs were the original keys; a connection also revealed in Latin clavis (“nail”) and claudere (“to shut”) (see close). Some medical sources give a supposed Greek verb κλειτοριάζω (kleitoriázō, “touch or titillate lasciviously, tickle”) literally "to be inclined (toward pleasure)" (compare German Kitzler (“clitoris”, literally “tickler”), related to Greek κλειτύς (kleitús, “shut, closed”), a variant of κλιτύς (klitús, “hillside”), related to κλίνω (klínō, “I slope”), from the same root as κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder”). But many sources take κλειτορίς (kleitorís) literally as Ancient Greek "little hill".

cog

genital tubercle - embryological precursor

(zoology) A similar erectile sexual organ present in the cloacas of female amniotes.


pirate

pirates (plural)
pyrate (alternative obsolete)

→ Niuean: pairēti

From Middle English pirate, pirat, pyrat, from Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta (“pirate”), from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".

(ornithology) A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.


annual

First attested around 1382, borrowed from Late Latin annuālem, annuālis, related to Latin annālis, adjective form of annus (“year”). Used to categorize plants since 1710.

(botany, of a plant) Having a life cycle that is completed in only one growing season; e.g. beans, corn, marigold. See Annual plant in Wikipedia. Compare biennial, perennial.

(entomology) Living or lasting just one season or year, as certain insects or insect colonies.


annual

I can't wait to plant my annuals in the spring.

(botany) An annual plant; a plant with a life span of just one growing season; a plant which naturally germinates, flowers and dies in one year. Compare biennial, perennial.


mater

(biology) Someone or something that mates.


leaf

en-noun

leaf (countable and uncountable, plural leaves)

Tok Pisin: lip

From Middle English leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *lowbʰ-o-m, from *lewbʰ- (“leaf, rind”)
See also West Frisian leaf, Low German Loov, Dutch loof, German Laub, Danish løv, Swedish löv, Norwegian Nynorsk lauv, Icelandic lauf; also Irish luibh (“herb”), Latin liber (“bast; book”), Lithuanian lúoba (“bark”), Albanian labë (“rind”), Latvian luba (“plank, board”), Russian луб (lub, “bast”).
(Internet slang: Canadian): In reference to the maple leaf as national symbol.

flat-leaf parsley

Petroselinum crispum neapolitanum group; syn. Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum

(botany) A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.


coyote

coyotes (plural)
cayeute (alternative obsolete)
cayota (alternative obsolete)
cayote (alternative obsolete)
coyoto (alternative obsolete)

→ Irish: cadhóit

Borrowed from Spanish coyote, from a Nahuan language, from Proto-Nahuan *koyootl. Compare Chinook ki-o-tī.

Near Rio Frio we shot several handsome birds, and saw a cayjotte, or wild dog, which in size nearly approached the wolf.

1824, William Bullock, Six Months' Residence and Travels in Mexico, page 119:

The MWRC animal care specialists attempted to unimprint the coyotes first by limiting their human contact and putting them with other wild coyotes. The hand-raised coyotes, however, were ostracized by the wild coyotes […]

Canis latrans
Canis latrans#Translingual

(zoology) Canis latrans, a species of canine native to North America.


integument

Borrowed from Latin integumentum (“a covering”).

Sarsem became a naked young epicene in an integument of lavender scales with puffs of purple hair like pom-poms growing down his back.

1984, Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous:

(biology) An outer protective covering such as the feathers or skin of an animal, a rind or shell.

Her active living was suspended, but underneath, in the darkness, something was coming to pass. If only she could break through the last integuments!

1920, D.H. Lawrence, chapter 1, in Women in Love:

(botany) The outer layer of an ovule, which develops into the seed coat.


nutrition

nutrition (usually uncountable, plural nutritions)

/njʉːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/

Borrowed from Middle French nutrition, from Old French nutricion, from Latin nutritio.

In the dead state all is apparently without motion. No agent within indicates design, intelligence, or foresight: there is no respiration; no digestion, circulation, or nutrition; […]

1822, John Barclay, chapter I, in An Inquiry Into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, Concerning Life and Organization, Edinburgh, London: Bell & Bradfute; Waugh & Innes; G. & W. B. Whittaker, section I, page 2:

Proper nutrition – and even more important, proper hydration – is crucial in preventing and recovering from both fevers and colds.

2016 September 16, Hailey Middlebrook, “Should you really feed a cold and starve a fever?”, in CNN:

(biology) The organic process by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance.


antenna

From Latin antenna, antemna (“yard, sailyard; pole”). First used in this sense as a Latin word in the 15th century and as an English word by the end of the 17th century.

bor

(biochemistry) A fragment of an oligosaccharide


bacterium

en-noun

bacterium (plural bacteria or (uncommon, possibly nonstandard) bacteriums)

bacteria (plural)
bacteriums (nonstandard plural possibly uncommon)

/bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/

From New Latin bactērium, from Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion, “small staff”), from βακτηρία (baktēría).

der

Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

(microbiology) A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.

bakterie

single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles


aerial

en-adj

aerial (comparative more aerial, superlative most aerial)

more aerial (comparative)
most aerial (superlative)
aërial (alternative archaic)

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Latin āeri(us) + -al, from Ancient Greek ἀέριος (aérios), from ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”).


label

en-verb

label (third-person singular simple present labels, present participle (UK) labelling or (US) labeling, simple past and past participle (UK) labelled or (US) labeled)

labels (present singular third-person)
labelling (UK participle present)
labeling (US participle present)
labelled (UK participle past)
labelled (UK past)
labeled (US participle past)
labeled (US past)

From Middle English label (“narrow band, strip of cloth”), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā (“torn piece of cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô (“cloth stuff, rag, scraps, flap, dewlap, lobe, rabbit ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“blade”). Cognate with Old High German lappa (“rag, piece of cloth”), Old English læppa (“skirt, flap of a garment”). More at lap.

cog

(biochemistry) To replace specific atoms by their isotope in order to track the presence or movement of this isotope through a reaction, metabolic pathway or cell.

2015, "Protein binder woes" (editorial), Nature Methods, 12(5) (May): 373.
They may be used to label and image a protein within tissue, to isolate cells on the basis of marker expression, or to physically capture a protein from a complex biological mixture....

(biochemistry) To add a detectable substance, either transiently or permanently, to a biological substance in order to track the presence of the label-substance combination either in situ or in vitro


glean

en-verb

glean (third-person singular simple present gleans, present participle gleaning, simple past and past participle gleaned)

gleans (present singular third-person)
gleaning (participle present)
gleaned (participle past)
gleaned (past)
glean (infinitive)
glean (first-person present singular)
gleaned (first-person past singular)
glean (present second-person singular)
gleanest (archaic present second-person singular)
gleaned (past second-person singular)
gleanedst (archaic past second-person singular)
gleans (present singular third-person)
gleaneth (archaic present singular third-person)
gleaned (past singular third-person)
glean (plural present)
gleaned (past plural)
glean (present subjunctive)
gleaned (past subjunctive)
glean (imperative present)
gleaning (participle present)
gleaned (participle past)

The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”).
The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”), from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above.
cognates
* Medieval Latin glana, glena (“bundle of ears of grain”)

pennaouiñ

(transitive) to collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest; to collect fruit, grain, or other produce from (a field, an orchard, etc.), after the main gathering or harvest; (intransitive) to collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest

poimia

(transitive) Of an animal: to feed by picking up or plucking (prey, mainly arthropods such as insects) from various places; (intransitive) of an animal: to feed by picking up or plucking prey from various places

Frigate birds glean a portion of their livelihood from the host of creatures which live at the surface of the ocean: flying-fishes, ctenophores, jelly-fishes, velela, janthina, and in fact anything that may attract their fancy. I even observed one bird aimlessly carrying a splinter of wood, uncertain of its utility, yet unwilling to release it.

1904 May–June, Walter K[enrick] Fisher, “The Home Life of a Buccaneer”, in Walter K. Fisher, editor, The Condor: A Magazine of Western Ornithology, volume VI, number 3, Palo Alto, Calif.: Cooper Ornithological Club, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60:

Seen traveling and foraging in noisy flocks of 5 to 30 or more birds, gleaning insects, eggs, and larvae from shrubs and trees.

2006, “Bushtits [Bushtit: Psaltriparus minimus L]”, in Jonathan Alderfer, editor, National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: Washington & Oregon, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISBN, page 173:

(zoology) Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking (prey, mainly arthropods such as insects) from various places.

On migration, it [the Wilson's warbler (Cardellina pusilla)] appears as a sunny flash of gold in roadside shrubs or swamp thickets, refueling on insects gleaned from leaves or caught in midair forays.

1980 November 30, John K[enneth] Terres, “Wilson’s warbler”, in The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published April 1982, →ISBN, page 994:

The species [Keen's myotis (Myotis keenii)] takes flying and non-flying prey, suggesting it gleans as well as hawking; it has been observed hunting over water.

2019, Marianne Taylor, “Yangochiroptera Accounts”, in Merlin D[evere] Tuttle, editor, Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species, London: Ivy Press, The Quarto Group, →ISBN, page 236:

(zoology) Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking prey, mainly arthropods such as insects, from various places.


diagnosis

en-noun

diagnosis (countable and uncountable, plural diagnoses)

/daɪəɡˈnəʊsɪs/

From Latin diagnōsis, from Ancient Greek διάγνωσις (diágnōsis), from διαγιγνώσκω (diagignṓskō, “to discern”), from διά (diá, “through”) + γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “to know”).

Diagnose

identification of the nature and cause of something

The repeated exposure, over decades, to most taxa here treated has resulted in repeated modifications of both diagnoses and discussions, as initial ideas of the various taxa underwent—often repeated—conceptual modification.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii:

(taxonomy) A written description of a species or other taxon serving to distinguish that species from all others; especially a description written and published in Latin.


focus

focus (countable and uncountable, plural foci or focuses or focusses)

foci (plural)
focuses (plural)
focusses (plural)

Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more. Doublet of fuel.
Kepler introduced the term into mathematics and the sciences in describing elliptical orbits of planets (quote from Nicholas Mee) :
"One of the interesting properties of an ellipse is that if there were a light bulb at one focus, then all the light that it emits would reflect off the ellipse and converge at the other focus. This is why Kepler originally used the name focus for these points."

bor+

(ichthyology) The centre of an older fish's scale, which is the point where a younger fish's scale starts to grow from.


fungus

en-noun

fungus (countable and uncountable, plural fungi or (nonstandard, rare) funguses or (nonstandard, rare) fungusses)

fungi (plural)
funguses (nonstandard plural rare)
fungusses (nonstandard plural rare)

→ Irish: fungas

Borrowed from Latin fungus (“mushroom”).

(mycology) Any member of the kingdom Fungi; a eukaryotic organism typically having chitin cell walls but no chlorophyll or plastids. Fungi may be unicellular or multicellular.


medium

Borrowed from Latin medium, neuter of medius (“middle”), from Proto-Italic *meðjos, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between”). Compare middle. Doublet of mid, medio, media, and meson.

In some instances one can take advantage of differential carbohydrate fermentation capabilities of microorganisms by incorporating one or more carbohydrates in the medium along with a suitable pH indicator. Such media are called differential media (e.g., eosin methylene blue or MacConkey agar) and are commonly used to isolate enteric bacilli.

1996, Samuel Baron, editor, Medical Microbiology:

(microbiology) A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.

среда́

nutrient solution for the growth of cells in vitro

The density of the living medium of fishes exerts upon them a mechanical influence; they are, so to say, balanced in water, free to proceed in all planes of direction...

1895, Bashford Dean., Fishes, Living and Fossil:

(biology, horticulture, etc.) A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.


series

series (plural series or (obsolete) serieses)

series (plural)
serieses (obsolete plural)

→ Japanese: シリーズ (shirīzu)

→ Korean: 시리즈 (sirijeu)

→ Burmese: စီးရီး (ci:ri:)

Attested from the 1610s; borrowed from Latin seriēs, from serere (“to join together, bind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together, to line up”). Related to desert, insert, sermon, and sorcerer.

مُتَسَلْسِلَة

in analysis: sum of the terms of a sequence

(botany) A subdivision of a genus, a taxonomic rank below that of section (and subsection) but above that of species.


stimulus

Borrowed from Latin stimulus (“goad, prick”).

bor+

Many plants, like many animals, are furnished with arms for their protection; these are either aculei, prickles […]; or stimuli, stings, as in the nettles, which are armed with a venomous fluid for the annoyance of naked animals.

1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 15:

(botany, entomology) A stinging part on the body of a plant or insect.


stratum

Borrowed from Latin strātum (“a spread for a bed, coverlet, quilt, blanket; a pillow, bolster; a bed”), neuter singular of strātus, perfect passive participle of sternō (“spread”). Doublet of estrade.

bor

(ecology) A layer of vegetation, usually of similar height.

skikt n (used as a suffix, -skikt, to a determinative noun, e.g. fältskikt, trädskikt)


pelta

From Latin pelta, from Ancient Greek πέλτη (péltē, “shield”).

The calyx is composed of five linear spreading sepals J inch long and attached to the sides of the inferior ovary are four bracts, two of which, the anterior and posterior, remain abortive, whilst the two lateral ones develop into large rounded flattened discs (peltae) attached at the centre.

1907, Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist, page 3:

A striated parabasal fibre is closely associated with a large parabasal golgi system; a dense pre-axostylar fibre connects to the axostyle, which is a curved sheet of microtubules that encloses the nucleus and extends to (or protrudes from) the posterior end of the cell; the same pre-axostylar fibre links to the pelta, which is a sheet of microtubules that curves around within a sort of collar that encloses the flagellar bases before turning back to meet the axostyle […]

1991, Michael A. Sleigh, Protozoa and Other Protists, page 116:

The pelta is a crescent-shaped sheet also formed by microtubules, and it overlaps with the axostyle in the anterior region of the cell. The pelta supports the wall of the anterior region of the cell and the flagellar canal from which the flagella emerges.

2010, W. de Souza, Structures and Organelles in Pathogenic Protists, page 16:

The anterior semi-circular pelta surrounds the basal body area and the axostyle forms the longitudinal axis of the cell.

2012, Michael Melkonian, The Cytoskeleton of Flagellate and Ciliate Protists, page 86:

(microbiology) A crescent-shaped sheet of microtubules that encircles the base of the flagella of a protozoan.


sagitta

en-noun

sagitta (plural sagittas or (arrowworm) sagittae)

/səˈd͡ʒɪt.ə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sagitta.wav

Borrowing from Latin sagitta (“an arrow, shaft, bolt”).

(zootomy) The larger of the two otoliths, or earbones, found in most fishes.


viverra

Viverra tigrina, or yellowish-grey weasel. […] Mr. Pennant has referred it to the genus felis, but Mr. Schrader makes it a viverra.

1829, John Wilkes, Encyclopaedia Londinensis, volume 24, page 410:

That curious animal, the basset (Bassaris astuta), which has alternately been associated by zoologists with the Ursidæ and Viverridæ, has blood corpuscles more agreeing in size with those of the bears, and consequently distinctly smaller than those of the viverras.

1862, The Medical Times and Gazette, volume 2, page 269:

(zoology, obsolete) An animal of the genus Viverra; a civet.


envelope

PIE word
 *h₁én
From French enveloppe. The engineering sense is derived from flight envelope. The verb is from the noun.

(biology) An enclosing structure or cover, such as a membrane; a space between two membranes


hydra

hydra (plural hydras or hydrae or hydræ)

hydras (plural)
hydrae (plural)
hydræ (plural)

After the Hydra, from Greek mythology, which grew two new heads every time one of its heads was cut off. The biology sense alludes to the budding method of asexual reproduction that the hydra practices, similar to growing new heads. The figurative sense refers to how the creature could not be killed by a swift, decisive solution (in contrast to a Gordian knot).

(biology) Any of several small freshwater polyps of the genus Hydra and related genera, having a naked cylindrical body and an oral opening surrounded by tentacles.

гі́дра

any of several small freshwater polyps of the genus Hydra and related genera

gaanłáníchilí dóó gaanłání doo yitʼíinii


liber

liber (countable and uncountable, plural libri or libers)

From Latin liber (“the inner bark of a tree; book”). See libel.

bor

(botany) The inner bark of plants, next to the wood. It usually contains a large proportion of woody, fibrous cells, and is the part from which the fibre of the plant is obtained, as that of hemp, etc.


anal

en-adj

anal (comparative more anal, superlative most anal)

more anal (comparative)
most anal (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin ānālis.
Psychological sense shortened from anal-retentive.

(entomology, of a vein) Proximate to the thorax.


metropolis

en-noun

metropolis (plural metropolises or metropoleis or metropoles or metropolizes or metropoli or (obsolete) metropolisses or (obsolete) metropolis's)

metropolises (plural)
metropoleis (plural)
metropoles (plural)
metropolizes (plural)
metropoli (plural)
metropolisses (obsolete plural)
metropolis's (obsolete plural)

Borrowed from Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”) + πόλις (pólis, “city (state)”). By surface analysis, metro- + -polis. Doublet of metropole.

der

(ecology) A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.


herb

en-noun

herb (countable and uncountable, plural herbs)

From Middle English herbe, erbe, from Old French erbe (French herbe), from Latin herba. Initial h was restored to the spelling in the 15th century on the basis of Latin, but it remained mute until the 19th century and still is for many speakers. Doublet of yerba.

(countable, botany) A plant whose stem is not woody and does not persist beyond each growing season


felon

From Middle English feloun, felone (“type of carbuncle or sore with pus; swelling on a hawk’s body”), possibly from Old French *felon, from Latin fel (“bile, gall; bitterness; poison; venom”): see etymology 1.

der

He hev been away from home for a few days, since he's had that felon upon his finger; for a' said, since I can't work I'll have a hollerday.

1874, Thomas Hardy, “In the Sun—a Harbinger”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 31:

(pathology, veterinary medicine) A small infected sore; an abscess, a boil; specifically, a whitlow (“infection near or under the cuticle of a fingernail or toenail”).


femur

(entomology) The middle segment of the leg of an insect, between the trochanter and the tibia.

(arachnology) A segment of the leg of an arachnid.


trait

traditional British pronunciation, now virtually obsolete

Borrowed from Middle French trait (“line, feature”), from Latin tractus (“drawing, pulling”), from Latin trahō. Doublet of tract.

inherited traits and acquired traits

The number one personality trait I hate is hypocrisy. Why can't you be consistent!?

The English, of all classes, value themselves on this trait, as distinguishing them from the French, who, in the popular belief, are more polite than true.

1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Truth:

The positive and constructive aspect of possibility gives the key to understanding the two chief traits of immaturity, dependence and plasticity.

1916, John Dewey, Democracy and Education:

Turning to our second trait, if you have straight hair, then both of your parents must carry an allele for this trait.

2003, Robert S. Siegler, Judy S. DeLoache, Nancy Eisenberg, How Children Develop, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 89:

(biology, psychology) An identifying characteristic, habit or trend.

صِفَة

an identifying characteristic, habit or trend


vane

From Middle English vane, Southern Middle English variant of fane, from Old English fana (“cloth, banner, flag”), from Proto-West Germanic *fanō, from Proto-Germanic *fanô, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“something woven; weave; tissue; fabric; cloth”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Foone (“flag, banner”), Dutch vaan (“banner, flag”), German Low German Fahn (“flag”), German Fahne. Doublet of obsolete fane (“weathercock; banner”) and fanon.

cog

Meronym: barb

(ornithology) The flattened, web-like part of a feather, consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft.

bandera

ornithology: flattened web-like part of a feather


thorn

From Middle English thorn, þorn, from Old English þorn, from Proto-West Germanic *þorn, from Proto-Germanic *þurnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥nós, from *(s)ter- (“stiff”).
Cognates
Near cognates include West Frisian toarn, Low German Doorn, Dutch doorn, German Dorn, Danish and Norwegian torn, Swedish torn, törne, Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌿𐍃 (þaurnus). Further cognates include Old Church Slavonic трънъ (trŭnŭ, “thorn”), Russian тёрн (tjorn), Polish cierń, Kamkata-viri taňi, tai (“thorn”), Sanskrit तृण (tṛ́ṇa, “grass”).

On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.

1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22:

(botany) A sharp protective spine of a plant.


corporal

From Middle English corporal, corporall, corporel, corporell, from Old French corporal (French corporel), from Latin corporālis, from Latin corpus (“body”); compare corporeal.

The smaller 9 9 have less elongated fins, drabber corporal colors, and more transparent fins.

1998, Rüdiger Riehl, Aquarium Atlas, volume 3, page 572:

(zoology) Pertaining to the body (the thorax and abdomen), as distinguished from the head, limbs and wings, etc.


turmeric

en-noun

turmeric (countable and uncountable, plural turmerics)

turmerics (plural)
tumeric (alternative)

/təɹˈmɛ.ɾɪk/

From Middle English turmeryte, tarmaret, of uncertain origin. Possibly corrupted from Arabic كُرْكُم (kurkum, “Curcuma”). Others have theorized it might come from Old French terre mérite (“deserving earth”).

Curcuma longa
Curcuma longa#Translingual

(botany) An Indian plant (Curcuma longa), with aromatic rhizomes, part of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae).


exotic

Borrowed from Middle French exotique, from Latin exōticus, from Ancient Greek ἐξωτικός (exōtikós, “foreign”, literally “from the outside”), from ἐξω- (exō-, “outside”), from ἐξ (ex, “out of”).

der

There were a few exotics among them — some South American boys, sons of Argentine beef barons, one or two Russians, and even a Siamese prince, or someone who was described as a prince.

c. 1948, George Orwell, Such, Such Were the Joys:

(biology) An organism that is exotic to an environment.


lid

Inherited from Middle English lid, lyd, from Old English hlid, from Proto-West Germanic *hlid, from Proto-Germanic *hlidą (compare Dutch lid, German Lid (“eyelid”), Swedish lid (“gate”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlitós (“covered”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to cover”).

(biology) An operculum or other lid-like cover.


culture

en-noun

culture (countable and uncountable, plural cultures)

cultures (plural)
culcha (alternative pronunciation-spelling)

From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

der

http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/grownet/flowers/sprgbulb.htm
The Culture of Spring-Flowering Bulbs

(microbiology) The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.

культу́ра

microbiology: the process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity


wasp

⇒ Sranan Tongo: waswasi

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *wóbʰseh₂
Proto-Germanic *wapsō
Proto-West Germanic *wapsu
Old English wæps
Middle English wasp
English wasp
Inherited from Middle English wasp, waspe, waps, from Old English wæsp, wæps, from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wóbʰseh₂ (“wasp”), from *webʰ- (“to weave”), referring to the insect's woven nests.
Compare Dutch wesp, German Wespe, Danish hveps. Metathesis of /s/ and /p/ was both a process of some generality within English (compare grasp from Middle English grapsen, and—affecting other plosives—ascian ~ acsian (“to ask”)) and common in the reflexes of *wóps-eh₂ (“wasp”) in particular, as the aforementioned Germanic cognates (and non-Germanic cognates like Latin vespa) evince.

senseno

any stinging flying insect resembling a hornet

sand wasp

genus Ammophila spp., in family Sphecidae, or tribe Bembicini, in family Crabronidae

en:any insect of suborder Apocrita except an ant

(entomology) Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).

Any of the members of the family Vespidae.


frog

en-verb

frog (third-person singular simple present frogs, present participle frogging, simple past and past participle frogged)

frogs (present singular third-person)
frogging (participle present)
frogged (participle past)
frogged (past)
frock (alternative dialectal)
frosk (alternative dialectal)
frosh (alternative dialectal)

From Middle English frogge, from Old English frogga, from Proto-West Germanic *froggō (“frog”). Cognate with Old Norse frauki.
Possibly related to Saterland Frisian Poage (“frog”), German Low German Pogg, Pogge (“frog”).
Sense 5 is a calque of Ancient Greek βάτραχος (bátrakhos).

calque

(transitive, biology) To use a pronged plater to transfer (cells) to another plate.


chupacabras

From Spanish chupa (“it sucks”) + cabras (“goats”).

(cryptozoology) A legendary creature in the folklore of parts of the Americas dating from the 1990s, supposed to attack and drink the blood of livestock, especially goats.


carrier

From Middle English cariere, partly from carien + -ere, after Anglo-Norman carier, cariour, and partly directly from Anglo-Norman. By surface analysis, carry + -er.

но́сьбіт

person or object that carries someone or something else

(genetics, pathology) A person or other organism that has a genetic trait, mutation or infection liable to cause a disease, but displays no symptoms.

حَامِل

person or organism that has inherited a trait or disease but displays no symptoms


IP

en-noun

IP (countable and uncountable, plural IPs)

(biology, uncountable) Initialism of immunoprecipitation.


elephantine

From Latin elephantīnus, equivalent to elephant + -ine.

(zoology) Any member of the subfamily Elephantinae of elephants and their extinct close relatives.


entire

From Middle English entere, enter, borrowed from Anglo-Norman entier, from Latin integrum, accusative of integer (“whole”), from Proto-Italic *əntagros (“untouched”). Doublet of entier and integer.

Spores tetrahedral, paraphyses mastoid-claviform, scales smooth, entire.

1899, Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club, volumes 6-8, page 192:

(botany) Having a smooth margin without any indentation.

(botany) Consisting of a single piece, as a corolla.


seed

seed (countable and uncountable, plural seeds)

seeds (plural)
sede (alternative obsolete)

]
From Middle English seed, sede, side, from Old English sēd, sǣd (“seed, that which is sown”), from Proto-West Germanic *sād, from Proto-Germanic *sēdą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, throw”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Säid (“seed”), West Frisian sied (“seed”), Dutch zaad (“seed”), Low German Saad (“seed”), German Saat (“seed; sowing”), Danish sæd (“seed”), Swedish säd (“seed”), Icelandic sæði (“seed”), Latin satiō (“seeding, time of sowing, season”). More at sow.

alkutilanne

initial state, condition or position of a process

(countable, botany) A fertilized and ripened ovule, containing an embryonic plant.


marine

en-adj

marine (comparative more marine, superlative most marine)

more marine (comparative)
most marine (superlative)

Recorded since c.1420 as Middle English marin, borrowed from Middle French marin, from Old French, from Latin marinus (“of the sea”), itself from mare (“sea”), from Proto-Indo-European *móri (“body of water, lake”) (cognate with Old English mere (“sea, lake, pool, pond”), Dutch meer, German Meer, all from Proto-Germanic *mari). The modern pronunciation is presumably due to the influence of modern French marine, feminine singular of marin.

cog

(zoology) Inhabiting the high seas; oceanic; pelagic. (distinguished from maritime or littoral)


opposite

From Old French oposite, from Latin oppositus, perfect passive participle of oppōnō (“I oppose”). Compare oppose.

(botany) Of leaves and flowers, positioned directly across from each other on a stem.


copy

copies (plural)
coppy (alternative)
coppie (alternative)
copie (alternative)

Etymology tree
Middle English copy
English copy
From Middle English copy, copie, from Old French copie (“abundance, plenty; transcript, copy”), from Medieval Latin copia (“reproduction, transcript”), from Latin cōpia (“plenty, abundance”), from *coopia, from co- (“together”) + ops (“wealth, riches”). More at opulent.

ру́копись

для сда́чи в печа́ть

материа́л

для статьи́, заме́тки, книги, публика́ции

Every cell in this organism contains a copy of each gene, but whether that copy will be expressed depends on complex factors of cell differentiation and epigenetics.

en:result of gene or chromosomal duplication

The result of copying; an identical or nearly identical duplicate of an original.

(genetics) The result of gene or chromosomal duplication.

kopio

genetics: result of gene or chromosomal duplication


clade

From Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “shoot, branch”). Coined by British evolutionary biologist, philosopher, author Julian Huxley in 1957 in a paper titled "The three types of evolutionary process" in Nature. Doublet of cladus.

coin

(genetics) A higher level grouping of a genetic haplogroup.


library

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: लाइब्रेरी f (lāibrerī)

Urdu: لائبریری f (lāibrerī)

→ Iban: librari

→ Japanese: ライブラリー (raiburarī)

→ Korean: 라이브러리 (raibeureori)

→ Yoruba: láíbìrì

/ˈlaɪˌbɹɛɹi/

From Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium (“bookcase, chest for books”), from librarius (“concerning books”), from liber (“the inner bark of trees; paper, parchment, book”), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-European base *leub(ʰ)- (“to strip, to peel”). Displaced native Middle English bochous, bokhus (literally “book house”), from Old English bōchūs (compare bookhouse).
Romance cognates often mean “bookshop” instead: French librairie, Italian libreria, Spanish librería, Romanian librărie and Portuguese livraria. This is a relatively recent innovation (16th century in French), which ended up displacing the earlier sense.

ncog

why buy a book when you can join a library

why buy a book when you can join the library

(genetics) A collection of DNA material from a single organism or relative to a single disease.


fertile

en-adj

fertile (comparative more fertile, superlative most fertile)

more fertile (comparative)
most fertile (superlative)

From Middle English, from Middle French fertile, from Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis (“fruitful, fertile”), from ferō (“I bear, carry”).

Most women at the age of fifty are not fertile.

Capable of reproducing; fecund, fruitful.

Capable of developing past the egg stage.

оплоден

capable of developing past the egg stage


coprophile

From copro- (“dung”) + -phile (“loving”).

(ecology) An organism (typically microorganisms and fungi) living off or growing in dung or other fecal matter.