pneumatophoren.
/ˈnjuːmətəfɔː/, /njuːˈmatə(ʊ)fɔː/, /njᵿˈmatə(ʊ)fɔː/, U.S. /n(j)uˈmædəˌfɔr/ 1. Zoology. A specialized part of a siphonophore colony containing an air-sac and serving as a float.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Diploblastica > phylum Coelenterata > [noun] > class Hydrozoa > order Siphonophora > member of > part containing air-cavity
pneumatophore1859
1859 T. H. Huxley Oceanic Hydrozoa 5 The float or pneumatophore is..a most remarkable and well-defined structure.
1870 H. A. Nicholson Man. Zool. I. ix. 82 The large proximal dilatation of the cœnosarc is termed the ‘pneumatophore’.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 771 The pneumatophore or float, an air-vesicle distinctive of Physophoridæ, Physalidæ, and Discoideæ.
1936 R. Hesse Ecol. Animal Geogr. xiii. 226 Among siphonophores, air sacs (pneumatophores) are present, which are filled with gas from a gas-producing gland.
1963 G. A. Kerkut Borradaile & Potts's Invertebrata (rev. ed.) v. 163 The first individual is either medusiform or else forms an apical float or pneumatophore, the epithelium of which secretes gas.
2002 Manly Daily (Austral.) (Nexis) 2 Mar. The top of the bluebottle is the float, or pneumatophore, which keeps the bluebottle afloat and acts as a sail. The pneumatophore secretes its own gas, keeping itself and the rest of the colony afloat.
2. A kind of breathing apparatus for supplying oxygen and absorbing exhaled carbon dioxide. Now historical.
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1879 J. Garret in Manch. Courier 25 Dec. 7/1 He also had another dress made, called a ‘pneumatophore’,..a simple..appliance, with which mines and other places filled with noxious vapours, can be safely and effectively explored for all practical purposes.
1898 North Adams (Mass.) Evening Transcript 26 May The ‘pneumatophor’, an Austrian invention for enabling miners, firemen, etc., to breath when surrounded by after damp, smoke or noxious fumes of any kind.
1904 Sci. Amer. Suppl. 27 Feb. 23545/1 In the earlier forms of the pneumatophor, the supply of oxygen was adjustable by the wearer of the apparatus.
1997 Guardian 10 Apr. (Online section) 15/1 Then there is the possible pneumatophore, a device that used caustic soda to ‘scrub’ already-breathed air for limited re-use.
3. Botany. A specialized type of aerial root having numerous lenticels and air spaces (aerenchyma), thought to promote aeration of the roots of mangroves, swamp cypresses, and various other plants native to places with permanently waterlogged soil.
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the world > plants > part of plant > root > [noun]
moreeOE
rootc1175
master-rootc1330
rootinga1400
radix1558
leg1597
taproot1601
top-root1651
tuberous root1668
heart-root1669
pivot1725
spill1766
tap1796
tutty-more1873
pneumatophore1891
stem root1901
heart-root1903
1891 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 621 In Rhizophora mangle their chief function is a supporting one; but they also possess large intercellular spaces which serve to assist respiration. Similar roots or ‘pneumatophores’ occur also in many other plants.
1912 A. F. Broun Sylviculture in Tropics iii. 46 The roots give out curious negatively geotropic branch roots, known as pneumatophores, which emerge from the mud in the shape of pointed cones..in order to take up the oxygen at low tide.
1952 P. W. Richards Trop. Rain Forest iv. 74 In swampy types of Rainforest..the so-called pneumatophores, or breathing roots, of some of the trees are often a striking feature.
1985 Cambr. Encycl. Life Sci. vii. 177/2 In mangroves,..some species have special aerial structures, pneumatophores and ‘knees’, that serve as chimneys allowing air to diffuse in and ventilate the tissues of roots below the surface.
Derivatives
pneumaˈtophorous adj. rare relating to or of the nature of a pneumatophore.
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1890 Cent. Dict. Pneumatophorous, bearing a pneumatocyst; pertaining to a pneumatophore, or having its character.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1859