fungus
pronunciation
How to pronounce fungus in British English:
UK [ˈfʌŋgəs]
How to pronounce fungus in American English:
US [ˈfʌŋɡəs]
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- Noun:
- a parasitic plant lacking chlorophyll and leaves and true stems and roots and reproducing by spores
Word Origin
- fungus
- fungus: [16] Fungus was introduced into English in the early 16th century as a learned and more all-embracing alternative to mushroom. It was borrowed from Latin fungus, which probably came from Greek sphóngos ‘sponge’, source of English sponge.=> sponge
- fungus (n.)
- 1520s, "a mushroom," from Latin fungus "a mushroom, fungus;" used in English at first as a learned alternative to mushroom (funge was used in this sense late 14c.). The Latin word is believed to be cognate with (or derived from) Greek sphongos, the Attic form of spongos "sponge" (see sponge (n.)). "Probably a loanword from a non-IE language, borrowed independently into Greek, Latin and Armenian in a form *sphong- ...." [de Vaan]
Example
- 1. The fungus achieved the best results by far .
- 2. Only one individual has been heard since the chytrid fungus was detected .
- 3. The blue postules may be penicillium , a really common spoilage fungus .
- 4. Corn infected with the fungus aspergillus flavus .
- 5. The mosquitoes are less likely to develop resistance to the fungus than insecticides .