Thermoacidophile

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A microorganism that grows best in both high temperatures and highly acidic conditions, typically found in volcanic or hot spring environments
2. An extremophile microbe that flourishes where heat and acidity are both extreme, such as sulfurous hot springs and geothermal vents
3. A heat-loving, acid-tolerant organism that survives and reproduces in environments too harsh for most other life forms

Etymology: Thermoacidophile is a modern scientific coinage, built from classical building blocks but never used by the ancient Greeks or Romans. It is a compound of "thermo-", from Ancient Greek "thermos" meaning "hot", "acid", from Latin "acidus" meaning "sour", and "-phile", from Ancient Greek "philos" meaning "loving" or "friend". The linking vowel "-o-" joins the parts, as it does in many scientific compounds. Each element arrived in English by its own route. "Acid" passed into English through French "acide" from Latin "acidus", while "thermo-" and "-phile" reached English as ready-made combining forms from Greek, which scientists have long used to coin new terms. The modern word therefore describes a microbe that thrives in heat and in acidic conditions, a pairing that would have seemed odd to the classical authors whose vocabulary it borrows.