Where does “herbivory” come from?
Herbivory derives from French herbivore, combining French herbe with Latin -ivus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -kos, expressing the practice of consuming plants.
herbivory (English): The consumption of living plant tissue by animals
Definitions
- The consumption of living plant tissue by animals
Ancestry of “herbivory”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | herbivore | An organism that feeds chiefly on plants; an... |
| 2 | French | herbivore | herbivorous; herbivore |
| 3 | New Latin | herbivorus | — |
| 4 | Latin | -vorus | -eating, -devouring |
| 5 | Latin | -us | suffix forming adjectives from nouns, verbs,... |
| 6 | Old Latin | -os | accusative masculine plural of -us |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -os | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -ós | Creates agent nouns from verb stems, denoting... |