pleomorphyn.
/ˈpliːə(ʊ)mɔːfi/, U.S. /ˈpliəˌmɔrfi/ 1. Botany. A kind of peloria in which the zygomorphic or asymmetric flower becomes regular by an increase in the number of its irregular elements. Now disused.
ΚΠ
1869 M. T. Masters Veg. Teratol. ii. ii. 228 These latter cases [of peloria], then, are due to an excess of development, hence the application of the term pleiomorphy.
1905 W. Bateson et al. Rep. to Evol. Comm. Royal Soc. No. 2. 30 In double Stocks the anthers and the pistil are not recognisable, and the centre of the flower is filled by a mass of petals. There is apparently petalody of both male and female organs, accompanied by reduplication or pleiomorphy.
2. Biology and Pathology. = pleomorphism n. (b), (c).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > life cycle > metamorphosis
metamorphosis1665
pleomorphism1854
allomorphosis1860
polyeidism1866
metamorphose1870
morphosis1882
pleomorphy1882
metaboly1890
cyclomorphosis1926
1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 232 The erroneous theory of so-called Pleomorphy [Ger. Pleomorphismus] among Fungi was the result of a defective perception of the true nature of the different kinds of reproductive organs on which the common name of Spore had been bestowed.
1927 Bot. Gaz. 84 128 On the grounds of pleomorphy, parasitism, and purivory, there is no apparent reason why heteroecism fails to appear more generally in the Ascomycetes.
1965 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 52 91 Mitochondria are much more numerous..and often exhibit a greater degree of pleiomorphy.
1987 Cancer Res. 47 6126 Using Cox's multivariate analysis, nuclear pleomorphy was found to be the only significant prognostic variable.
2003 Reproductve Toxicol. 17 593 Membrane vesicle formation around the lipid droplets and increased mitochondrial pleiomorphy were observed.
Derivatives
ˈpleomorphist n. an advocate of the phenomenon of pleomorphy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > life cycle > metamorphosis > advocate of theory of
pleomorphist1887
1887 Athenæum 6 Aug. 184/3 When De Bary discovered and demonstrated the wonderful fact of heterœcism..it is not astonishing that many saw in this the way to crown the wildest conjectures of the pleomorphists of the day.
1965 Science 30 July 531/1 The prehistory of modern microbial genetics, starting with the controversy between pleomorphists and monomorphists..is unmentioned.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1869