Saprobiont

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An organism that thrives by decomposing dead and decaying organic material
2. A living being that obtains nutrients by breaking down dead plants or animal residues
3. A creature which survives through digestion of decaying matter within its environment

Etymology: "Saprobiont" is built from two Greek-derived pieces. The first, "sapro-", comes from Greek "sapros", meaning "rotten" or "putrid," the same root behind "sapro-" in other scientific terms about decay. The second, "-biont", comes from Greek "bios", meaning "life," and appears in words for living things such as "symbiont" and "autobiont." Put together, the name describes exactly what the organism does: it lives on dead and decaying matter. The term belongs to modern biological classification rather than to ancient usage. Ancient Greeks had no concept of these organisms as a category, so the word was assembled in the modern scientific era from classical building blocks. The related term "saprobe" is the more common of the two, and "saprobiont" is a synonym for it, meaning the same thing and used in much the same contexts.

Synonyms: decomposer, detritivore