zoophyte

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in older zoology, a plantlike invertebrate such as a coral, sponge, or sea anemone

   Darwin described the sea pen as a zoophyte composed of many connected polyps.

2. 2
   noun

   in premodern natural history, an organism believed to combine characteristics of animals and plants

   Early naturalists treated the sensitive plant as a zoophyte poised between two kingdoms.

From zoo- + -phyte, after French zoophyte and scientific Latin Zoophyta; the elements ultimately come from Greek zoion, animal, and phyton, plant. The name reflects an obsolete classification of plantlike animals and supposed organisms intermediate between plants and animals.

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