Etymology

biomagnification

Today it means: The process, in an ecosystem, in which a higher concentration of a substance in an organism is obtained higher up the food chain. Full definition →

English magnification ← Middle English magnifien ← Middle French magnifier
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
  2. Ancient Greekβῐ́ος (bĭ́os)
  3. Ancient Greekβῐο- (bĭo-)
  4. Englishbio-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*méǵh₂s
  6. Proto-Indo-European*m̥ǵh₂nós
  7. Proto-Italic*magnos
  8. Latinmagnus
  9. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
  10. Proto-Italic*θakos
  11. Latinmagnificus
  12. Latinmagnificāre
  13. Middle Frenchmagnifier
  14. Middle Englishmagnifien
  15. Englishmagnify
  16. Englishmagnification
  17. English todaybiomagnification

From bio- + magnification.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.