Monecious

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A type of flowering plant that possesses both male and female reproductive structures on the same individual
2. Referring to species that produce both types of sex organs within single specimens, allowing for self-fertilization or cross-fertilization
3. Describing organisms that have both male and female gametes present in the same plant, facilitating reproduction without needing a separate partner

Etymology: "Monecious" is a misspelling of "monoecious", and the correct form is the one that matters here. The word joins Ancient Greek "mónos", meaning "alone" or "solitary", with "oîkos", meaning "house" or "dwelling-place". Literally, then, it describes an organism that keeps everything under one roof: a single plant or animal carrying both kinds of reproductive organs. The "oecious" ending is the Greek "oîkos" in its combining form, a root that also shows up in "economy", whose Greek sense was household management. Biologists took the Greek pieces and assembled them into a technical term, so the word belongs to the vocabulary of modern science rather than to classical usage. The Greeks themselves had no notion of plant sex organs in this sense, and the term was coined to label a botanical observation.