plasmodiumn.
/plazˈməʊdɪəm/, U.S. /plæzˈmoʊdiəm/ Biology.
1. A multinucleate amoeboid mass or sheet of protoplasm formed by the fusion or aggregation of a number of amoeboid cells; esp. the vegetative stage of acellular slime moulds. Also occasionally as a mass noun.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > bodies or parts > [noun] > plasmodium
plasmodium1875
plasmode1890
the world > life > biology > substance > cell > cell substance > [noun] > protoplasm or cytoplasm > mass of
plasmodium1875
1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 693/2 The formation of the plasmodium is a kind of complex conjugation.
1877 T. H. Huxley Man. Anat. Invertebrated Animals ii. 81 A certain number of the myxopods unite together, and become fused into an active plasmodium, which exhibits no trace of their primitive separation.
1880 Proc. Royal Soc. 1879–80 30 254 The formation of plasmodia was at first supposed to be peculiar to the Myxomycetes, but several Rhizopods have been described in which a more or less complete cell-fusion has been observed.
1880 Amer. Naturalist 14 751 Pieces of rotten wood containing plasmodium are placed on moistened microscope slides.
1909 J. J. Lister in E. R. Lankester Treat. Zool. I. i. 44 The mode of life of the plasmodium differs in different species, some..penetrating the interstices of dead wood, others..living among heaps of decaying leaves.
1947 F. A. Wolf & F. T. Wolf Fungi I. iv. 40 In moist weather the spore walls open to emit swarm cells (myxamoebae), which ingest bacteria and fungus spores..and grow to become a large, multinucleate, naked mass of protoplasm (plasmodium).
2003 Focus July 9 In its plasmodium state, slime mould is a large blob of living jelly.
2. Any of various parasitic sporozoans of the genus Plasmodium, several of which invade human liver and blood cells and cause malaria. Also (in form Plasmodium): the genus itself.These parasites are not now identified as plasmodia in sense 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > balance of nature > organisms in interrelationship > [noun] > parasites
parasite1728
plasmodium1886
nosophyte1890
holoparasite1891
wound-parasite1897
plasmodiophorid1975
1886 Science 2 Apr. 298/2 (caption) Figs. 1–20 represent the changes in form which occurred in a plasmodium, contained in a red blood-corpuscle, during a period of twenty minutes.
1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. ii. 49 The plasmodium-infected corpuscles.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 595 The most careful examination of the blood during the paroxysms showed no evidence of plasmodia.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. iii. 37 One of the worst of them is the malarial organism (Plasmodium) which is introduced into man by the bite of an infected mosquito.
1977 T. I. Storer et al. Elements Zool. (ed. 4) xv. 261/2 The most familiar example of a sporozoan is Plasmodium, the cause of malaria.
1990 M. Weatherall In Search of Cure (BNC) 190 It [sc. malaria] was often called marsh fever, but the connection was not understood until certain mosquitoes were recognized as carriers of the disease and as alternative hosts of plasmodia.
Derivatives
plasˈmodium-like adj. resembling a plasmodium.
ΚΠ
1887 Proc. Royal Soc. 42 331 The action of these minute germ-like bodies causes the protoplasm of the cells of the root to assume plasmodium-like characters.
1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. vi. 116 Plasmodium-like organisms.
1993 Planta 190 426/1 Unpressurized cells of A[chlya] bisexualis grew in the form of a plasmodium-like colony on solid media.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1875