Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Symbiosis
/ˌsɪmbaɪˈoʊsɪs/noun
A close, long-term association between two different species.
The Greek roots
σύν
sýn
together with
βίωσις
bíōsis
way of living
Literally: “living together”
The story of the word
Greek used συμβίωσις for people sharing a household or a life together, with no biology attached. Lichens forced the change: Albert Bernhard Frank applied the term in 1877 to the fungus-and-alga partnership, and Anton de Bary's 1879 lecture gave it currency for any close living-together of unlike organisms. That definition includes parasitism, which still surprises people, since ordinary English hears symbiosis and assumes both sides are winning.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1877
Same family
symbioticbiologysynthesissymphony
In a sentence
The ants defend the tree and eat its nectar, a symbiosis nobody had to design.
Their working symbiosis lasted until one of them wanted top billing.