Bioplasms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of living substances that are intercellular and contribute to biological processes within organisms
2. Materials that are integral to cellular functions and overall life dynamics
3. Living components that play key roles in the biological structure and metabolism of living beings

Etymology: "Bioplasms" is the plural of "bioplasm," a noun for living components that play key roles in the structure and metabolism of living beings. The root "bioplasm" is built from the Greek "bios," meaning life, and "plasma," meaning something formed or moulded, so the word literally describes living matter that has been shaped into form. Its history is simple: it is a compound of two classical elements, with "bio-" serving as the familiar prefix for life and "-plasm" as the suffix that appears in words such as "protoplasm" and "cytoplasm." Because the plural simply pluralises the noun, the meaning is the same as the singular; the word is used when more than one such component is under discussion. The word belongs to the family of scientific coinages built from Greek roots during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when biologists needed precise terms for the substances inside cells, and it should be read as a technical formation of that period rather than a word known to the ancient Greeks.