Microsporum

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of fungus belonging to the genus that often causes skin infections, particularly in humans and animals
2. It is commonly associated with conditions like ringworm or tinea
3. This organism exists in various species that can infect keratinized tissues of the host's body

Etymology: Microsporum is a genus name coined by the German mycologist Gustav Gruby in 1843, when he described the fungus behind a scalp infection. Its name is built entirely from Greek roots: "mikros" meaning small, and "sporos" meaning seed, which in fungal terms refers to a spore. The genus was named for the small spores these fungi produce, which are a useful clue for telling them apart under the microscope. The word is a modern scientific coinage rather than something the ancient Greeks used, though it draws on their vocabulary in the same way that much of biological nomenclature does. Its members are dermatophytes, fungi that live on keratin in skin, hair and nails, and several species are responsible for ringworm, a name that describes the reddish, ring-shaped rash rather than any actual worm.

Synonyms: fungus, dermatophyte, ringworm fungus, fungal pathogen, dermatophyte genus