zoophyte, n.

zoophyte
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoophyte_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoophytenoun

## Earlier version

- zoophyte in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoophyte mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zoophyte. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

zoophyte has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

invertebrates (early 1600s) plants (early 1600s)

### How common is the noun zoophyte?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

1760 | 0.14
1770 | 0.2
1780 | 0.22
1790 | 0.27
1800 | 0.43
1810 | 0.54
1820 | 0.68
1830 | 0.78
1840 | 0.82
1850 | 0.84
1860 | 0.8
1870 | 0.65
1880 | 0.53
1890 | 0.38
1900 | 0.26
1910 | 0.17
1920 | 0.11
1930 | 0.076
1940 | 0.058
1950 | 0.048
1960 | 0.04
1970 | 0.033
1980 | 0.031
1990 | 0.029
2000 | 0.026
2010 | 0.026

### How is the noun zoophyte pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuː(ə)fʌɪt/
ZOO-uh-fight
/ˈzəʊəfʌɪt/
ZOH-uh-fight

#### U.S. English

/ˈzu(ə)ˌfaɪt/
ZOO-uh-fight
/ˈzoʊəˌfaɪt/
ZOH-uh-fight

### Where does the noun zoophyte come from?

Earliest known use

early 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun zoophyte is in the early 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoophyte is from 1606, in a translation by Richard Knolles, historian and translator.

zoophyte is a borrowing from French, combined with English elements; modelled on a French lexical item.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑phyte comb. form, French zoophite.

### Nearby entries

1. zoophilism, n. 1867–
2. zoophilist, n. 1829–
3. zoophilite, n. 1879–
4. zoophilous, adj. 1881–
5. zoophily, n. 1830–
6. zoophobia, n. 1888–
7. zoophysical, adj. 1820–
8. zoophysics, n. 1887–
9. zoophysiology, n. 1803–
10. zoophytal, adj. 1756–
11. zoophyte, n.1606–
12. zoophytic, adj. 1808–
13. zoophytical, adj. 1779–
14. zoophytish, adj. 1854–80
15. zoophytist, n. 1814–62
16. zoophytography, n. 1735–1905
17. zoophytoid, adj. 1854–83
18. zoophytological, adj. 1823–
19. zoophytologist, n. 1835–
20. zoophytology, n. 1815–
21. zoophyton, n. 1601–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from French, combined with English elements; modelled on a French lexical item.
Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑phyte comb. form, French zoophite.
< zoo- comb. form + ‑phyte comb. form, after Middle French, French zoophyte, †zoophite animal resembling a plant (1546 in Rabelais), plant resembling an animal, vegetable lamb (1602 in the passage translated in quot. 1621 at sense 2…
< zoo- comb. form + ‑phyte comb. form, after Middle French, French zoophyte, †zoophite animal resembling a plant (1546 in Rabelais), plant resembling an animal, vegetable lamb (1602 in the passage translated in quot. 1621 at sense 2).

In specific use in sense 1 after scientific Latin Zoophyta, former group name (see zoophyton n.)

Compare slightly earlier zoophyton n.

## Meaning & use

Biology. Now historical.

1. 1.
   1606–
   Originally: an animal thought to resemble or have certain characteristics of a plant or flower. In later use: spec. any animal belonging to the (former) group Zoophyta, comprising certain sessile invertebrate animals, typically with a branching or radiating structure, such as crinoids, hydrozoans, sponges, and bryozoans. Cf. zoophyton n. 1. Also figurative.
   Also called animal flower, animal plant, phytozoon, plant-animal.
   compound zoophyte, coral-zoophyte: see the first element.
   1. 1606

      > The Zoophytes [French les Zoophytes], or Plantbeasts, which haue feeling and motion, but yet take life by the roots whereby they grow.

      R. Knolles, translation of J. Bodin, Six Bookes of Common-weale 793
   2. 1621

      > Many strange creatures, mineralls, vegetalls, Zoophites.

      R. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy ii.ii.iii. 319
   3. 1644

      > Vnder the title of plants I include not zoophytes or plantanimals.

      K. Digby, Two Treatises i. xxiii. 208
   4. 1753

      > If..some will still consider these marine productions as plants, they are truly zoophytes, formed by the labour of the animals, which inhabit them.

      W. Watson in Philosophical Transactions 1751–2 (Royal Society) vol. 47 457
   5. 1776

      > The earth-worm, and all the zoophyte tribe, continue to live in separate parts when cut into pieces.

      S. Ward, Modern System of Natural History vol. XI. 177
   6. 1828

      > Polypi or Zoophytes; comprehending all those small, gelatinous, and compound or aggregated animals which have a mouth surrounded by tentacula, and conducting into a simple stomach.

      J. Stark, Elements of Natural History vol. II. 395
   7. 1858

      > Is it at all probable that this now active-minded Englishman will be content to remain a kind of political zoophyte? that he will continue listless about the government of his country?

      Daily News 25 December 2/6
   8. 1873

      > I wish I was, like some worthy people I know, a mere human zoophyte, consisting of nothing but a mouth and a stomach.

      A. B. Edwards, In Days of my Youth vol. III. i. 5
   9. a1933

      > The same retrenchment or reduction of vulnerable surface is observed in some zoöphytes and even more complicated animals.

      J. A. Thomson, Biology for Everyman (1934) vol. II. 876
   10. 1992

       > After Ellis there was broad agreement that zoophytes, including corals and sponges, were indeed animal.

       J. Hamilton-Paterson, Seven-tenths iii. i. 83
   11. 2014

       > The border zones between animals and plants populated with zoophytes.

       J. Steigerwald in S. Lettow, Reprod., Race, & Gender in Philos. & Early Life Science v. 107
   invertebrates historical
   1. sensitive plant 1601–58
      A living organism, esp. a sessile aquatic invertebrate, classed as intermediate between animals and plants or thought to share qualities of both…
   2. zoophyton 1601–
      Originally: an animal thought to resemble or have certain characteristics of a plant or flower. In later use (usually in plural): spec. any animal…
   3. zoophyte 1606–
      Originally: an animal thought to resemble or have certain characteristics of a plant or flower. In later use: spec. any animal belonging to the…
   4. plant-animal 1621–
      An organism which has characteristics of both an animal and a plant. In early use: †a plant which is supposed to resemble an animal in some…
   5. animal plant 1736–1846
      A sedentary aquatic invertebrate; a zoophyte.
   6. phytozoon 1842–
      Zoology. A zoophyte; an individual polyp of a zoophyte. Formerly: spec. an animal of a taxonomic division Phytozoa, which included some or all of…
   7. zoothome 1872–
      A group of individual coral polyps living in a colony; cf. zoophyte, n. 1.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1621–
   A plant thought to resemble an animal or to have certain qualities characteristic of animals, esp. a sensitive plant (sensitive plant n. 1b), or vegetable lamb (vegetable lamb n.). Cf. plant-animal n. 1.
   1. 1621

      > There is mention of the Boranets, Zoophites [French Zoophytes], or Plant-animals of Moscouy, in the first Booke of the second Weeke.

      T. Lodge, translation of S. Goulart, Learned Summary Poeme of Saluste of Bartas i. 132
   2. 1680

      > In this Country grows the Plant Zoophyte, that resembles a Lamb.

      R. Morden, Geography Rectified 122
   3. 1707

      > If he had known this [Sensitive] Plant, he wou'd not have fail'd to have call'd it, not only a Zoophyte, that is, a Plant-Animal, but even a very Animal in all its Forms.

      translation of P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont, Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening iv. 87
   4. 1790

      > The Tartarian Lamb, Agnus Scythicus, or Barometz, heretofore imposed on the credulous as a kind of Zoophyte.

      R. Pulteney, Hist. & Biogr. Sketches Progress Bot. in Eng. vol. II. 91
   5. 1818

      > This plant is remarkable for possessing a great portion of the animal nature. It is for this reason called the Animal Plant; as also Zoophytes; and in the Russian language, Bonarets.

      Gentleman's Magazine November 458/1
   6. 1927

      > Many strange and fabulous tales were told [about cotton], among which was the story of the Vegetable Lamb, or Zoöphyte.

      H. B. Brown, Cotton i. 3
   7. 1990

      > One of the most fanciful and elaborate zoophytes that puzzled naturalists was the Scythian lamb..this creature consisted of the body of a lamb rooted to the ground by a stem, and reportedly survived by eating the grass around it.

      Renaissance Quarterly vol. 43 303
   8. 2001

      > The Scythian lamb, that woolly zoophyte..inhabited the margins of texts.

      British Journal of History of Science vol. 34 240/1
   plants historical
   1. plant-animal 1621–
      An organism which has characteristics of both an animal and a plant. In early use: †a plant which is supposed to resemble an animal in some…
   2. zoophyte 1621–
      A plant thought to resemble an animal or to have certain qualities characteristic of animals, esp. a sensitive plant (sensitive plant, n. 1b), or…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuː(ə)fʌɪt/
ZOO-uh-fight
/ˈzəʊəfʌɪt/
ZOH-uh-fight

### U.S. English

/ˈzu(ə)ˌfaɪt/
ZOO-uh-fight
/ˈzoʊəˌfaɪt/
ZOH-uh-fight

####

##### 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

### Variant forms

1. 1600s
   zoophit, zoophyt, zöophyte
2. 1600s–1900s
   zoophite
3. 1600s–
   zoophyte
4. 1800s–
   zoöphyte

## Frequency

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

zoophyte 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 zoophyte, n., 1760–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1760 | 0.14
1770 | 0.2
1780 | 0.22
1790 | 0.27
1800 | 0.43
1810 | 0.54
1820 | 0.68
1830 | 0.78
1840 | 0.82
1850 | 0.84
1860 | 0.8
1870 | 0.65
1880 | 0.53
1890 | 0.38
1900 | 0.26
1910 | 0.17
1920 | 0.11
1930 | 0.076
1940 | 0.058
1950 | 0.048
1960 | 0.04
1970 | 0.033
1980 | 0.031
1990 | 0.029
2000 | 0.026
2010 | 0.026

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zoophytography, n. 1735–1905
   The scientific description of zoophytes; a…

1. zoophytal, adj. 1756–
   Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes; (also)…

1. zoophytical, adj. 1779–
   Characteristic of or resembling a zoophyte…

1. zoophytic, adj. 1808–
   Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes. Also…

1. zoophytist, n. 1814–62
   = zoophytologist, n.

1. zoophytology, n. 1815–
   The branch of zoology which deals with zoophytes…

1. zoophytish, adj. 1854–80
   Characteristic of or resembling a zoophyte.

1. zoophytoid, adj. 1854–83
   Characteristic of or resembling a zoophyte…

1. coral-zoophyte, n. 1874–
   = coral polyp, n. See also coral-plant, n…

1. 1753–
   General attributive and instrumental, as zoophyte colony, zoophyte-clothed, zoophyte trough, etc.
   1. 1753

      > Zoophyte Marygold..the name of a species of sea animal, of a very beautiful kind, and of the nature of those commonly called Zoophytes,..by the old naturalists.

      Chambers's Cyclopædia Suppl. at Marygold
   2. 1792

      > Antediluvian remains of marine animals, of what naturalists call the Zoophyte order, inhabiting the ocean in those remote times.

      Gentleman's Magazine March 234/2
   3. 1856

      > For the examination of living aquatic objects, too large to be conveniently received into the Aquatic Box, the Zoophyte-trough contrived by Mr. Lister may be employed with great advantage.

      W. B. Carpenter, Microscope §69
   4. 1889

      > The zoophyte-clothed rocks.

      Hardwicke's Science-gossip vol. 25 38
   5. 1906

      > Some of the smaller members of the zoophyte family—hydroids and their allies.

      E. Lawless, Book Gilly ii. 13
   6. a1933

      > This planula larva..buds out tentacles, and becomes a tiny polyp—the beginning of a zoöphyte colony.

      J. A. Thomson, Biology for Everyman (1934) vol. I. v. 90
   7. 2015

      > With more powerful and accurate lenses, the study of zoophyte anatomy advanced rapidly.

      J. Bowen, Coral Reef Era v. 47/2
   life sciences historical

zoophyte, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoophyte, n. was last modified in March 2025.