| 释义 |
-trophic, suffix|ˈtrəʊfɪk, ˈtrɒfɪk|
[See trophic a.]
1. Forming adjs.: (a) with the senses ‘characterized by nutrition (of a certain kind)’, ‘finding nourishment in’, as in autotrophic adj. s.v. auto-1, heterotrophic, lecithotrophic adjs., psychrotrophic adj. s.v. psychro-; also ‘controlled by’, as in neurotrophic a.; (b) with the sense ‘maintaining or supporting (a gland, tissue, etc.)’ and hence ‘regulating’, esp. in the epithets of hormones, as gonadotrophic, sebotrophic adjs. Cf. -tropic.
1943Endocrinology XXXIII. 407 The use of -tropic as in gonadotropic..reverses and confuses a clear, practical pre-established usage in the broad field of biology... -Trophic, even if not perfectly apt, is close enough in meaning and is free from confusion. 1950Lancet 2 Dec. 708/2 It is becoming current practice to speak of the action of a hormone in controlling an endocrine gland as trophic (e.g., thyrotrophic hormone..)... This is surely a misuse of words, from a confusion between trophic action..which is concerned with nutrition,..and tropism.., which connotes control... Is it too late to revert to thyrotropic..and the like? 1971Ibid. 25 Sept. 701/2 For good or ill, -trophic is all but universal [in the names of hormones], though I saw corticotropic recently in a new edition of a student's biochemistry book from the States. |