zooecium

noun

zo·oe·ci·um zō-ˈē-shē-əm

variants or less commonly zoecium

plural zooecia also zoecia zō-ˈē-shē-ə

: a sac or chamber secreted and lived in by a bryozoan zooid

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from zo- zo- + Greek oikíon "house, dwelling, nest," derivative of oîkos "house, dwelling" — more at vicinity

Note: Alternatively, -oecium could be from Greek oikía "household, home" and the Latin compounding suffix -ium; for a possible model see androecium, androecium. The term zooecium was introduced by the Swedish zoologist Frederik Adam Smitt (1839-1904) in "Oms Hafs-Bryozoernas utveckling och fettkroppar," Öfversigt af Konigliga Vetenskaps-Akademien Förhandlingar, 22. årgången, 1865 (Stockholm, 1866), p. 115; the vernacular equivalent of it in the same publication is djurhus.

First Known Use

1871, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of zooecium was in 1871

See more words from the same year