Dimerous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having floral or other structural parts arranged or occurring in sets of two
2. Composed of organs or elements that are grouped into pairs or sets of two
3. Characterized by a basic structural unit or arrangement consisting of two repeated parts or components

Etymology: "Dimerous" is a plain technical formation built from two Greek elements: the prefix "di-", meaning "two" or "double," and the suffix "-merous," from "meros," meaning "part." Together they describe something made up of two parts. Ancient Greek already had a close relative, "dimerḗs," meaning "bipartite" or "divided into two," so the English term follows a pattern the Greeks themselves used. The word is used mainly in biology and chemistry, where it describes structures that occur in groups of two. In botany, a flower whose whorls each contain two parts is called dimerous, and in entomology the term describes insect tarsi with two segments. In chemistry, a dimer is a molecule formed by joining two identical smaller molecules, a sense that comes from the same Greek root.