Sycon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small marine sponge with a tube-like body made of calcium carbonate spicules, belonging to the genus of calcareous sponges
2. A type of saltwater sponge whose skeleton is built from calcium carbonate needles and which forms a vase-shaped body
3. Any member of a group of tiny calcareous sponges found in shallow seas, named for its distinctive chalky skeletal structure

Etymology: The Greek "sûkon" meant "fig," and it sits behind a word most English speakers have never met: "sycon." In botany it names a fig-like fruit structure, the hollow, flask-shaped receptacle that holds the tiny flowers of a fig and later ripens into the fruit. The term was first used as a scientific name for a genus of sponges, and the word passed from there into English as a technical term, borrowed through the international scientific vocabulary that uses a shared Latinised form of Greek roots. The meaning travelled a long way from the fruit on the tree. A sponge was named for its resemblance to a fig, and the botanical term took the same root, so one Greek word for a common Mediterranean fruit now serves two unrelated fields of natural history. The English usage is confined to specialist writing, and it remains a coinage built from the old Greek noun rather than a word that ever circulated in everyday speech.