Ecological Words

Node-

Oxford English Dictionary:

Meanings

1. “A knot, a knob, a protrubence, a knotty formation.”

2. “A hard concretion or circumscribed, usually rounded, protuberance, swelling, or mass; a nodule; spec. a localized area of syphilitic periostitis, esp. of the tibia.”

3. “A small, usually rounded structure or organ.”

4. “An entanglement.”

5. “A small ball representing a planet in a Ptolemaic model of the solar system.”

6. “A point or line of absolute or comparative rest in a standing wave system; a point at which a spherical harmonic or similar periodic function has the value zero.”

7. “A joint of a plant stem; the point on a stem from which a leaf, lateral stem, adventitious root, etc., arises. Also: a joint of the stalk, or point of origin of a branch, of a crinoid, coral, hydroid, etc”

8. “A point of significance; a crux, a critical turning point; a focal point.”

9. “A place at which roads, etc., meet; a junction; a point of intersection or convergence.”

Etymology

It comes from the “classical Latin nōdus knot, natural thickening in the body, tumour or swelling, difficulty, crux, point of intersection of two or more lines, point in the year at which the ecliptic cuts the equator, knot or joint on stem or branch, perhaps < the same Indo-European base as net.”

 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Meanings

1. “A discrete mass of one kind of tissue enclosed in tissue of a different kind.”
2. “A point, line, or surface of a vibrating body or system that is free or relatively free from vibratory motion”
3. “A point at which a curve intersects itself in such a manner that the branches have different tangents”
4. “A pathological swelling or enlargement (as of a rheumatic joint)”

Etymology

“Akin to Middle Irish naidm bond.” First Known Use: 15th century.

 

Dictionary.com

Meanings

1. “A knuckle or finger joint.”
2. “A swelling or lump on a tree; a knob or knot.”
   1. “Either of the two points at which the orbit of an artificial satellite intersects the equatorial plane of the planet it is orbiting.”
   2. “A point or vertex in a graph.”

Etymology

“Originally borrowed c.1400 in Latin form, meaning ‘lump in the flesh.’ Meaning ‘point of intersection’ (originally of planetary orbits with the ecliptic) was first written down 1660s.”

 

Biotic-

Oxford English Dictionary:

Meanings

1. “Of or relating to daily life.”
2. “In later use: of or relating to living organisms; caused by living organisms.”
   1. “Of or relating to a (typically specific) biota or ecosystem, or flora or fauna in general.”
   2. “(Originally) in terms of vitality; (in later use) in terms of biota; biologically.”

corollary, biospherical,

Etymology

“< post-classical Latin bioticus of or belonging to ordinary life (4th cent.) and its etymon ancient Greek βιωτικός fit for life, lively, in Hellenistic Greek also of or relating to life < ancient Greek βίος life + -ωτικός -otic suffix. With sense 2 compare biotical adj., and also French biotique (1845).”

 

Cambridge English Dictionary:

Meanings

1. “Involving, caused by, or relating to living things in the environment.”