|
anthophilous: msg#00012culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Planning to catch some Zs this summer? Check out the new fourth edition of The Official SCRABBLE(R) Players Dictionary! http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?scrabdic.htm&3 **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for July 13 is: anthophilous \an-THAH-fuh-lus\ adjective : feeding upon or living among flowers Example sentence: A 1998 study in Tasmania showed that anthophilous parrots are among the major visitors to the flowers of the eucalyptus -- and among this important tree's most effective cross-pollinators. Did you know? Parrots love eucalyptus flowers. That's because anthophilous birds are naturally attracted to "ornithophilous" flowers -- which is to say, flowers that are pollinated by birds. The "-philous" in both of those terms is the combining form that means "loving" (from Greek "-philos"). "Anthophilous" uses the Greek word "anthos," meaning "flower," while "ornithophilous" traces back to Greek "ornis," meaning "bird." "Ornithophilous" is one of a whole swarm of specialized words that identify flowers in terms of the flower-loving creatures that pollinate them. "Entomophilous" flowers, for example, are pollinated by anthophilous insects, such as bees. There's even a word specifically for plants that are pollinated by bees: "melittophilous" (from the Greek word "melitta," meaning "bee"). |
|
| <Prev in Thread] | Current Thread | [Next in Thread> |
|---|---|---|
| Previous by Date: | ninja: 00012, word |
|---|---|
| Next by Date: | demarcate: 00012, word |
| Previous by Thread: | ninjai: 00012, word |
| Next by Thread: | demarcate: 00012, word |
| Indexes: | [Date] [Thread] [Top] [All Lists] |
| News | FAQ | advertise |