aetheogam

See also: aëtheogam

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀήθης (aḗthēs, “unusual”) + γάμος (gámos, “marriage”).[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

aetheogam (plural aetheogams)

  1. (botany) A cryptogam; a plant of the obsolete taxonomic class Cryptogamia, having neither stamina nor pistils, and therefore no proper flowers, such as an alga, fern, fungus, lichen or moss.

Usage notes

  • Being derived from the two vowels ἀή (aḗ) (alpha-eta: aē), rather than the diphthong αἰ (ai) (alpha-iota: ai), the initial ae- of aetheogam can only properly be written as two separate letters (ae), with a diaeresis atop the e (as aëtheogam) being optional; the spellings *ætheogam and *etheogam are, therefore, erroneous.

Synonyms

Derived terms

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “aetheogam”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
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