parasite
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Latin parasitus, from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parasitos, “person who eats at the table of another”), from noun use of adjective meaning "feeding beside", from παρά (para, “beside”) + σῖτος (sitos, “food”).
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
parasite (plural parasites)
- (pejorative) A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little back. [from 16th c.]
- (biology) A (generally undesirable) living organism that exists by stealing the resources produced/collected by another living organism. [from 18th c.]
- 2013 March 1, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 83:
- It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.
- Lice, fleas, ticks and mites are widely spread parasites.
- 2013 March 1, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 83:
- (literary, poetic) A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc. [from 19th c.]
- 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, I:
- Her golden tresses shade / The bosom’s stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column.
- 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, I:
Antonyms [edit]
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
useless person who always relies on other people's work and gives nothing back
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(generally undesirable) living organism that exists by stealing resources from another living organism
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Translations to be checked
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- “parasite” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).
Anagrams [edit]
Latin [edit]
Noun [edit]
parasīte
- vocative singular of parasītus