Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Trophic
/ˈtrɒfɪk/adjective
Having to do with feeding and nutrition, as in the trophic levels of a food chain.
The Greek roots
τροφή
trophḗ
nourishment, food
Literally: “of feeding”
Follow a root:τροφή7 words
The story of the word
τροφή is whatever keeps a thing alive by feeding it. Ecologists count trophic levels upward from plants to grazers to predators, and roughly a tenth of the energy survives each step, which is why there are no fifth-level animals to speak of. Endocrinologists use the word differently, for hormones that keep a target gland fed and working. Trophy is not a relative; that comes from τροπή, the turning of a beaten enemy.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
atrophyhypertrophydystrophyeutrophication
In a sentence
Removing the wolves shifted every trophic level in the valley.
Mercury concentrates as it moves up the trophic chain.