Paroicous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing a moss that bears male and female reproductive structures in separate groups on the same plant
2. Referring to a bryophyte whose male and female organs grow in distinct clusters on a single individual
3. Characterizing mosses in which antheridia and archegonia are separately clustered on the same shoot

Etymology: The word belongs to the botanical vocabulary of mosses and their relatives, and it is built from Greek pieces. Its root is the Ancient Greek "pắroikos", meaning "dwelling beside", made from "pará" ("beside") and "oîkos" ("house" or "dwelling"). Botanists used the stem "-oecious" to describe plants whose sexes live together in one "house", and the prefix "par-" marks a particular arrangement within that scheme. The Greek roots describe a household rather than a sex: the ancient word for a neighbour who lived beside you, a resident alien in a city, carried the sense of living next door. In modern botany, that sense of sharing a dwelling was adapted to a plant that houses its male and female organs in separate clusters on the same individual, so that the two sexes sit side by side on one plant.

Synonyms: paroecious