Etymology

zoospore

Z10O1O1S1P3O1R1E1

Today it means: A motile asexual spore of some algae and fungi. Full definition →

English spore ← Ancient Greek ζῷον (zōîon) ← Proto-Hellenic *d͏̌ōwós
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*gʷyéh₃-w-os
  3. Proto-Hellenic*d͏̌ōwós
  4. Ancient Greekζωός (zōós)
  5. Ancient Greekζώῐ̈ον (zṓĭ̈on)
  6. Ancient Greekζῷον (zōîon)
  7. Englishzoo-
  8. Englishspore
  9. English todayzoospore

From zoo- + spore.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.