Sorosis
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any multiple fruit, usually fleshy, that is derived from the multiple ovaries in an infructescence. Such a structure typically includes remnants of floral tissues such as the perianth. Examples include the mulberry and pineapple.
"The fruit of pineapple is a sorosis developing from numerous sessile flowers that are connote with their subtending bracts and with one another."
- 2 A women's club; a society to further the educational and social activities of women. US, historical
"Yet these women were not a clique, nor a sect, nor a Sorosis, but all our wives, and sisters, and daughters, and lovers. They were just the common lot […]"
Example
More examples"The fruit of pineapple is a sorosis developing from numerous sessile flowers that are connote with their subtending bracts and with one another."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek σωρός (sōrós, “heap”).
According to Webster Suppl. 1879, an arbitrary use of the botanical term, adopted as the name of the first club of the kind, founded in 1868. It follows that it shares the same etymology, referring to aggregation, rather than the etymology of sorority, which referred to sisterhood.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.