zoosporangium, n.

zoosporangium
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoosporangium_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoosporangiumnoun

## Earlier version

- zoosporangium in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoosporangium mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoosporangium?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.034
1880 | 0.037
1890 | 0.039
1900 | 0.045
1910 | 0.05
1920 | 0.055
1930 | 0.056
1940 | 0.055
1950 | 0.053
1960 | 0.048
1970 | 0.038
1980 | 0.033
1990 | 0.025
2000 | 0.02
2010 | 0.017

### How is the noun zoosporangium pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)spɒˈrandʒiəm/
zoo-uh-sporr-AN-jee-uhm
/ˌzəʊəʊspɒˈrandʒiəm/
zoh-oh-sporr-AN-jee-uhm

#### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)spəˈrændʒiəm/
zoo-uh-spuh-RAN-jee-uhm
/ˌzoʊəspəˈrændʒiəm/
zoh-uh-spuh-RAN-jee-uhm

### Where does the noun zoosporangium come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zoosporangium is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoosporangium is from 1862, in Natural History Review.

zoosporangium is a borrowing from German.

Etymons: German Zoosporangium.

### Nearby entries

1. zoopraxography, n. 1891–
2. zoopsychology, n. 1847–
3. zooscopic, adj. 1817–
4. zooscopy, n. 1891–
5. zoosematic, adj. 1898–1909
6. zoosemiotics, n. 1963–
7. zoosophy, n. 1662–1848
8. zoosperm, n. 1824–
9. zoospermatic, adj. 1845–79
10. zoosporangiophore, n. 1889–
11. zoosporangium, n.1862–
12. zoospore, n. 1842–
13. zoosporic, adj. 1854–
14. zoosporous, adj. 1845–
15. zoot, n. 1942–
16. zootaxy, n. 1833–
17. zootechnic, adj. 1861–
18. zootechnics, n. 1863–
19. zootechny, n. 1841–
20. zootheca, n. 1852–
21. zoothecium, n. 1880–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German.
Etymon: German Zoosporangium.
< German Zoosporangium (1850 in plural Zoosporangien, or earlier) < Zoo- zoo- comb. form + Sporangium sporangium n.

Compare scientific Latin zoosporangium (1861 or earlier).

Compare earlier zoospore n.…
< German Zoosporangium (1850 in plural Zoosporangien, or earlier) < Zoo- zoo- comb. form + Sporangium sporangium n.

Compare scientific Latin zoosporangium (1861 or earlier).

Compare earlier zoospore n.

### Notes

In β forms with omission of the ending; compare French zoosporange (1867 or earlier).

## Meaning & use

Biology.

1. 1862–
   A sporangium containing or producing zoospores.
   1. 1862

      > Dr. Hildebrand..proposes ‘lageniferum’ as the specific name on account of the shape of the zoosporangia.

      Natural History Review vol. 2 482
   2. 1875

      > Thick filaments or tubes, similar to those which form the Zoosporangia.

      M. C. Cooke, Fungi 170
   3. 1889

      > Each zoosporange produces a considerable number of zoospores, which again give rise to resting-cells.

      A. W. Bennett & G. R. M. Murray, Handbook of Cryptogamic Botany 347
   4. 1939

      > This functions directly as a zoosporangium..releasing swarm-spores that infect a host plant.

      E. A. Bessey, Text-book of Mycology (new edition) ii. 40
   5. 1993

      > Sunflower plants bearing freshly produced zoosporangia were allowed to air-dry for 2–3 h.

      Mycol. Research vol. 97 240/2
   6. 2013

      > Field surveys in Louisiana and Colorado revealed that zoosporangia occur within crayfish gastrointestinal tracts.

      Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. vol. 110 210/1
   plants
   1. zoosperm 1842–91
      A zoospore. Cf. sporozoid, n. Obsolete.
   2. zoospore 1842–
      A motile flagellate spore, as produced by certain algae, fungi, and protozoans. Cf. zoosperm, n. 2.
   3. zoosporangium 1862–
      A sporangium containing or producing zoospores.
   4. zoosporangiophore 1889–
      A sporangiophore bearing zoosporangia.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)spɒˈrandʒiəm/
zoo-uh-sporr-AN-jee-uhm
/ˌzəʊəʊspɒˈrandʒiəm/
zoh-oh-sporr-AN-jee-uhm

### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)spəˈrændʒiəm/
zoo-uh-spuh-RAN-jee-uhm
/ˌzoʊəspəˈrændʒiəm/
zoh-uh-spuh-RAN-jee-uhm
/ˌzu(ə)ˌspoʊˈrændʒiəm/
zoo-uh-spoh-RAN-jee-uhm
/ˌzoʊəˌspoʊˈrændʒiəm/
zoh-uh-spoh-RAN-jee-uhm

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Forms

### Inflections

Plural: zoosporangia

### Variant forms

##### α.

1. 1800s–
   zoosporangium, zoösporangium

##### β.

1. 1800s–1900s
   zoosporange (rare), zoösporange (rare)

## Frequency

zoosporangium typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.

zoosporangium is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zoosporangium, n., 1870–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1870 | 0.034
1880 | 0.037
1890 | 0.039
1900 | 0.045
1910 | 0.05
1920 | 0.055
1930 | 0.056
1940 | 0.055
1950 | 0.053
1960 | 0.048
1970 | 0.038
1980 | 0.033
1990 | 0.025
2000 | 0.02
2010 | 0.017

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zoosporangiophore, n. 1889–
   A sporangiophore bearing zoosporangia.

zoosporangium, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoosporangium, n. was last modified in July 2023.