Discomycete

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of fungus belonging to the class Discomycetes, producing saucer- or cup-shaped fruiting bodies that bear spores on their inner surface
2. Any member of the ascomycete group Discomycetes, a fungus whose open, disc-shaped reproductive structures release spores into the air
3. An ascomycete fungus in the former class Discomycetes, typically forming shallow cup or disc-like apothecia on decaying wood, soil or plant matter

Etymology: Discomycete is a term from mycology, the study of fungi, and it was built as a taxonomic name rather than grown out of everyday speech. It comes from the scientific Latin name Discomycetes, the label once given to a large group of fungi whose spore-producing structures form flat or cup-shaped discs, such as many cup fungi and the familiar "elf cups." The name combines "discus," Latin for a disc or quoit, with the Greek "mykes," meaning fungus, which is the same Greek root behind words like mycology and mycelium. Because it was coined for classification, the word tracks a way of sorting fungi by their visible shape. Its use in English is therefore confined to specialist writing, where it names a member of that older grouping. Modern fungal classification has reorganised these fungi considerably, so the term now mostly appears in older texts and in discussions of how mycologists once divided the kingdom.