Chytrid

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Any member of a group of primitive, mostly aquatic fungi that swim using a single flagellum ; a species of this fungus that infects and kills amphibians worldwide
2. A microscopic fungus of the phylum Chytridiomycota with motile spores ; the pathogenic chytrid that causes the deadly skin disease chytridiomycosis in frogs
3. Primitive water-dwelling fungi producing swimming spores ; a particular chytrid species responsible for devastating amphibian declines through skin infection

Etymology: Chytrid is a name that looks like it should be ancient, but it was coined in modern science from a small Greek kitchen word. The Greek "khútra" meant an earthen pot or pipkin, and the diminutive "khutrídion" meant "little pot." Biologists took that diminutive and gave it the "-id" ending, a standard form for naming members of a group, so the fungi that bear the name are named after their tiny pot-shaped structures. The word is a technical coinage, not a term that Greek speakers ever used for these organisms. The fungi were named in modern biology, and the classical root was chosen only for its shape-based meaning. The sense of a small container is what links the scientific name back to the everyday Greek vessel.