Etymograph

English

foraminifer

Foraminifer comes from French foraminifère ‘foraminifer, foraminifera’, and goes back to Foraminifères.

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentForaminifères
  2. French, derivedc. 1600–presentforaminifère‘foraminifer, foraminifera’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1859foraminifer

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentForaminifères
  2. French, derivedc. 1600–presentforaminifère‘foraminifer, foraminifera’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1859foraminifer

Earliest quotation: 1859, Art. V.—Physical Geography of the Atlantic Ocean.: “The species of foraminifer which composes, almost to the…”

Equivalent to forāmen ‘apertures, holes’ + -fer ‘bearing’

The story

Borrowed from French foraminifère (‘foraminifer, foraminifera’), from French Foraminifères, coined by the French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857) in an 1826 article.

Every English word from French Foraminifères

Today it means

noun Any of a large group of aquatic amoeboid protists of the subphylum Foraminifera, characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm that among other things is used for catching food, often with a calcareous shell with many holes through which pseudopodia protrude.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / French Foraminifères / foraminifer

Shirt and support for this word