Octocoralline

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or characteristic of marine organisms belonging to a group of corals that possess eight tentacles and typically form colonial structures in ocean environments
2. A type of marine organism known for having eight tentacles that usually forms colonies and is part of the larger family of corals found in ocean ecosystems
3. This marine life form has eight tentacles and commonly builds colonies, representing a specific category of corals in the sea

Etymology: The word is a modern scientific coinage built from Greek parts. "Okto" is Greek for "eight," and "coral" comes ultimately from the Greek "korallion" through Latin "corallium" and Old French. The "-ine" ending comes from Latin "-inus," meaning "of or pertaining to," the same ending found in "coralline," which describes things resembling coral. Combining these gives a term for the group of corals whose polyps have eight feathery tentacles, a feature that separates them from the hard corals, whose polyps usually have multiples of six. The ancient Greeks had no such concept. The division of corals by tentacle count was made by zoologists studying them in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the classification of marine animals was being systematized. The "-ine" form was probably built later, as a technical adjective for use in scientific writing about the group. Because the term is specialized, it appears mainly in marine biology texts rather than in everyday English.