Monoxenous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing a parasite or organism that lives on or within only one particular species of host throughout its life
2. Restricted to a single host organism, such as a parasite that depends on just one kind of species to survive
3. Having a close dependence on one host species alone, with no ability to infect or live on other kinds of hosts

Etymology: Monoxenous is a technical term from biology, describing an organism that lives in or depends on only one host species. Its building blocks come straight from ancient Greek: "mónos" meant "alone, only, sole," and "xénos" meant "alien" or "stranger," the same root that gives English "xenophobia" and "xenon." Put together, the word literally means something like "single-stranger," which is a neat image for a parasite or symbiont that is a stranger to every creature except one. The term is a modern scientific coinage built from these classical parts, so the Greeks themselves never used it. Its meaning sits in a family of related words in the same field: organisms that can use many hosts are described by contrasting terms, and the "xen-" element shows up in the vocabulary of parasitology precisely because a host was once thought of as a kind of guest or stranger to the parasite.

Antonyms: heteroxenous, polyxenous