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Tropism
Definitions
- 1 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. uncountable
"Orientation and tropism are synonymous expressions; that gatherings [of Paramecium] take place is a consequence of the orientation, and therefore throws no light whatever upon the tropisms. (Gatherings, however, are not always indicative of a tropism, i.e., of an orientation, but may be due to kinesis […]"
- 2 an involuntary orienting response; positive or negative reaction to a stimulus source wordnet
- 3 A capability or tendency for a pathogen (chiefly a virus) to infect a type of cell, tissue, organ, or host organism. broadly, countable
"host tropism tissue tropism"
- 4 Of a person: an instinctive predilection or tendency; also (generally), a liking, a preference. countable, figuratively
"It is reasonable to suppose that tropism will be less conspicuous in animals which are endowed with intelligence than in others; but well-marked tropisms are still to be found among the higher animals. Gregarious animals have a positive tropism toward the members of their own flock; the dog has a negative tropism toward his own kind and a positive tropism toward mankind."
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.
See also for "tropism"
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