coccus
Meaning
Any spherical or roughly spherical bacterium
(in botany) One of the parts of a schizocarp, especially in plants of the mint family
Structure
Usage
Under the microscope, the infection was identified as being caused by a gram-positive coccus.
The peppercorn is a dried coccus from the pepper plant.
The microbiologist distinguished the diplococcus from other bacterial forms based on its paired spherical structure.
Etymology
The word 'coccus' entered scientific English in the 18th century from modern Latin, which borrowed it directly from the Greek kokkos, meaning "grain" or "berry." This Greek term is likely of Pre-Greek, non-Indo-European origin, reflecting a very old agricultural concept. The semantic logic is vividly metaphorical: early microbiologists, observing spherical bacteria under the microscope, named them for their resemblance to tiny seeds or berries. This naming convention established the '-coccus' suffix in microbiology to denote spherical bacterial shapes, such as in streptococcus (twisted chain of spheres) or staphylococcus (bunch of grape-like spheres).
Analysis
cocc (from Greek kokkos meaning "grain, seed, berry"); us (a Latin noun-forming suffix, often used in scientific Latin to denote a thing).