Zoanthidae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family of small colonial animals found in ocean waters, each with a cup-shaped body and tentacle-ringed mouth
2. A group of marine colonial polyps that form interconnected colonies and feed using their ring of tentacles
3. A marine family of colonial cnidarians comprising numerous tiny polyps with tentacular feeding structures joined together

Etymology: Zoanthidae is the name of a family of colonial sea anemone-like animals, and the name is a Latinised scientific coinage rather than an ancient word. It is built from Greek "zōion," meaning "animal," and "anthos," meaning "flower," the same "anthos" that gives English "anthology" and "chrysanthemum." Early naturalists saw these polyps as flower-like animals, and the name carries that picture directly. The family suffix "-idae" is the standard zoological ending for animal families, derived from the genus name Zoanthus, which was itself formed on the same Greek roots. So the name is a double layer of classical vocabulary: the genus name first, then the family name built from it with the Latin-style "-idae" ending.