tropism

noun
/ˈtɹəʊpɪz(ə)m/UK/ˈtɹoʊˌpɪzəm/US

Etymology

From -tropism (suffix meaning ‘growth towards; movement, turning’) (possibly based on geotropism and heliotropism), from Latin tropus + English -ism (suffix forming nouns of action, process, or result). Tropus is derived from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a turn; a manner, style, way; figure of speech, trope; etc.”), from τρέπω (trépō, “to turn; to divert; to rotate or change orientation”) (from Proto-Indo-European *trep- (“to turn”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns of result or abstract nouns of action). Sense 1 (“turning of an organism or part of an organism towards or away from a stimulus”) is modelled after German Tropismus.

  1. derived from *trep- — “to turn
  2. derived from τρόπος — “a turn; a manner, style, way; figure of speech, trope; etc.
  3. derived from tropus

Definitions

  1. The turning of an organism (chiefly a plant) or part of an organism either towards or…

    The turning of an organism (chiefly a plant) or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; (countable) an instance of this.

  2. A capability or tendency for a pathogen (chiefly a virus) to infect a type of cell,…

    A capability or tendency for a pathogen (chiefly a virus) to infect a type of cell, tissue, organ, or host organism.

    • host tropism    tissue tropism
  3. Of a person

    Of a person: an instinctive predilection or tendency; also (generally), a liking, a preference.

The neighborhood

Derived

tropistic

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for tropism. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA