zoosporic, adj.

zoosporic
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoosporic_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoosporicadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoosporic mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zoosporic?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1850 | 0.0004
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0004
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0007
1910 | 0.0007
1920 | 0.0007
1930 | 0.0008
1940 | 0.0011
1950 | 0.002
1960 | 0.0028
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.0041
1990 | 0.0046
2000 | 0.0052
2010 | 0.006

### How is the adjective zoosporic pronounced?

#### British English

/zuː(ə)ˈspɔːrɪk/
zoo-uh-SPOR-ik
/zəʊəˈspɔːrɪk/
zoh-uh-SPOR-ik

#### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)ˈspɔrɪk/
zoo-uh-SPOR-ik
/ˌzoʊəˈspɔrɪk/
zoh-uh-SPOR-ik

### Where does the adjective zoosporic come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoosporic is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoosporic is from 1854, in Florist & Hort. Journal (Philadelphia).

zoosporic is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zoospore n., ‑ic suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zooscopic, adj. 1817–
2. zooscopy, n. 1891–
3. zoosematic, adj. 1898–1909
4. zoosemiotics, n. 1963–
5. zoosophy, n. 1662–1848
6. zoosperm, n. 1824–
7. zoospermatic, adj. 1845–79
8. zoosporangiophore, n. 1889–
9. zoosporangium, n. 1862–
10. zoospore, n. 1842–
11. zoosporic, adj.1854–
12. zoosporous, adj. 1845–
13. zoot, n. 1942–
14. zootaxy, n. 1833–
15. zootechnic, adj. 1861–
16. zootechnics, n. 1863–
17. zootechny, n. 1841–
18. zootheca, n. 1852–
19. zoothecium, n. 1880–
20. zootheism, n. 1879–
21. zootheist, n. 1879–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zoospore n., ‑ic suffix.
< zoospore n. + ‑ic suffix.

Compare earlier zoosporous adj.

## Meaning & use

Biology.

1. 1854–
   Producing zoospores; of the nature of, or effected by zoospores; = zoosporous adj.
   1. 1854

      > Details on the mode of reproduction of zoosporic algæ.

      Florist & Hort. Journal (Philadelphia) vol. 3 102 (title)
   2. 1885

      > The parasite while in its zoosporic stage makes its way into an epidermal cell, which then increases rapidly in size.

      Botanical Gazette vol. 10 236
   3. 1942

      > These fungi constitute an ascending evolutionary line originating in the zoosporic Monadineae.

      J. S. Karling, Simple Holocarpic Biflagellate Phycomycetes 102
   4. 1974

      > Part 3..leads the students in elaborate detail through the culturing and examination of the life cycles of a zoosporic plant (a water mold, Allomyces).

      American Biol. Teacher vol. 36 118/3
   5. 2002

      > In frog diseases, human pythiosis, potato blight, and all of the maladies caused by zoosporic fungi, zoospores are the agents that initiate the infection.

      N. P. Money, Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard vi. 121
   life sciences physiology
   1. formal c1400–1676
      Of or pertaining to form, n., in various senses. Pertaining to the specific form of an animal or plant. Of a seed or germ: Endowed with a…
   2. sporular 1819–
      Having the character of, pertaining to, a sporule.
   3. zoosporous 1845–
      Producing zoospores; of the nature of, or effected by zoospores; = zoosporic, adj.
   4. zoosporic 1854–
      Producing zoospores; of the nature of, or effected by zoospores; = zoosporous, adj.
   5. polysporous 1858–
      Containing or producing numerous spores; involving or characterized by the production of numerous spores.
   6. polyspored 1882–
      = polysporous, adj.
   7. sporulating 1897–
   8. sporulated 1898–
   9. polyzoic 1901–
      Chiefly Zoology. Of, relating to, or designating a parasitic sporozoan whose oocysts produce a large number of sporozoites. rare.
   10. zygosporic 1906–
       Of the nature of or producing zygospores.
   11. polyspore 1959–
       Of or derived from many spores; = polysporous, adj.
   12. propagular 1967–
       Of or relating to a propagule or propagules.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuː(ə)ˈspɔːrɪk/
zoo-uh-SPOR-ik
/zəʊəˈspɔːrɪk/
zoh-uh-SPOR-ik

### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)ˈspɔrɪk/
zoo-uh-SPOR-ik
/ˌzoʊəˈspɔrɪk/
zoh-uh-SPOR-ik

####

##### 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. 1800s–1900s
   zoösporic
2. 1800s–
   zoosporic

## Frequency

zoosporic typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zoosporic is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 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 zoosporic, adj., 1850–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1850 | 0.0004
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0004
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0007
1910 | 0.0007
1920 | 0.0007
1930 | 0.0008
1940 | 0.0011
1950 | 0.002
1960 | 0.0028
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.0041
1990 | 0.0046
2000 | 0.0052
2010 | 0.006

Originally published as part of the entry for zoospore, n.

zoosporic, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zoosporic, adj. was last modified in July 2023.