GC: Scdaily – http://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/microorganism.htm (last access: 2 September 2015); EC – https://food.ec.europa.eu/plants/pesticides/micro-organisms_en (last access: 28 November 2024).
N: 1. also microorganism, “a microscopic organism,” 1855, from “micro-” + “organism”.
- micro- (combining form): Word-forming element meaning “small in size or extent, microscopic; magnifying;” in science indicating a unit one millionth of the unit it is prefixed to; from Latinized form of mikros, Attic form of Greek smikros “small, little, petty, trivial, slight,” perhaps from PIE *smika, from root *smik- “small” (source also of Old High German smahi “littleness”), but Beekes thinks it a Pre-Greek word.
- organism (n): 1660s, “organic structure, organization” (a sense now rare or obsolete), from “organize” + “-ism”. Sense of “living animal or plant, body exhibiting organic life” is by 1842. Related: Organismic; organismal.
also from 1660s
2. An organism (such as a bacterium or protozoan) of microscopic or ultramicroscopic size.
- International Scientific Vocabulary. The first known use of microorganism was in 1880.
3. Any plant or animal of microscopical size; a protozoan, fungus, bacterium, or virus.
4. An organism belonging to the categories of viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae or protozoa. Most of them are small, and the group owes its cohesion to the similarity of methods for their handling.
5. The variety of technological uses to which microorganisms are put is enormous. In brewing and baking, the alcohol and carbon dioxide produced in fermentation by yeasts are utilized. Bacterial fermentations are used industrially to produce organic acids and solvents. In food manufacture, microorganisms are used for the production of vinegar, the preservation of olives, sauerkraut, and pickles, for the souring of cream in making butter, for the ripening of cheese, and for the curing of tea and tobacco
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=microorganism, https://www.etymonline.com/word/micro-, https://www.etymonline.com/word/organism (last access: 28 November 2024). 2. MW – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microorganism (last access: 28 November 2024). 3 to 5. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=MICROORGANISM&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 2 September 2015).
GV: micro-organism
S: TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=MICROORGANISM&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 2 September 2015)
SYN: microbe (depending on context)
S: NCBI – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279387/ (last access: 28 November 2024); Scdaily – http://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/microorganism.htm (last access: 2 September 2015)
CR: antibiotic, antifungal, bacterium, carrier, fungus, microbiota, pathogen, pathogenic, toxi-infection, virus.
