zooid, adj.

zooid
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooid_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# † zooidadjective

## Earlier version

- zooid, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zooid mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zooid. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

This word is now obsolete. It is only recorded in the 1840s.

### Where does the adjective zooid come from?

Earliest known use

1840s

The only known use of the adjective zooid is in the 1840s.

OED's earliest evidence for zooid is from 1849, in the writing of J. Leidy.

zooid is probably formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑oid suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zoogony, n. 1675–
2. zoograph, n. 1623
3. zoographer, n. 1646–
4. zoographic, adj. 1741–
5. zoographical, adj. 1651–
6. zoographically, adv. 1835–
7. zoographist, n. 1749–1874
8. zoography, n. 1593–
9. zoogyroscope, n. 1880–
10. zooid, n. 1851–
11. zooid, adj.1849
12. zooidal, adj. 1858–
13. zooidogamous, adj. 1891–
14. zookeeper, n. 1886–
15. zookeeping, n. 1929–
16. Zookers, int. 1620–
17. Zooks, int. 1600–
18. zoolater, n. 1876–
19. zoolatrous, adj. 1876–
20. zoolatry, n. 1784–
21. zoolite, n. 1768–

## Etymology

### Summary

Probably formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑oid suffix.
Probably < zoo- comb. form + ‑oid suffix.

Compare slightly later zooid n.…
Probably < zoo- comb. form + ‑oid suffix.

Compare slightly later zooid n.

### Notes

Compare Byzantine Greek ζῳοειδής resembling an animal, and also French zooïde (of a mineral) that bears the fossilized imprint of an animal (1842).

## Meaning & use

Obsolete. rare.

1. 1849
   Resembling an animal, esp. in being motile.
   1. 1849

      > Thus, if we examine several of the families of Chlorospermeæ.., we find numerous zooid plants, some of the simplest forms in the organic kingdom, consisting of single rows of organic cells, enveloped in a mucoid substance, and swimming in water.

      J. Leidy in American Journal of Medical Science vol. 17 287
   2. 1849

      > Cells..accumulate and fix around and within themselves certain matters which they derive from the surrounding nutritive fluids, as happens in the case of many zooid plants.

      Monthly Journal Med. Science December 1277

zooid, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zooid, adj. was last modified in December 2024.