plankton: [19] The ultimate source of plankton is Greek plázein ‘hit’, a descendant of the same base as produced English apoplexy, plague, and plectrum. The link between these two unlikelysounding relatives is that something that is hit moves or wanders, and plankton are minute organisms that wander or drift in the ocean. The Greek derivative plagtón meant ‘wanderer’, and the application to ‘plankton’ was first made in German in the 1880s. => plague
plankton (n.)
1891, from German Plankton (1887), coined by German physiologist Viktor Hensen (1835-1924) from Greek plankton, neuter of planktos "wandering, drifting," verbal adjective from plazesthai "to wander, drift," from plazein "to drive astray," from PIE root *plak- (2) "to strike, hit" (see plague (n.)). Related: Planktonic.
雙語例句
1. The first organisms that reproduced sexually were free-floating plankton.
最早開始有性繁殖的生物是四處漂浮的浮游生物。
來自柯林斯例句
2. The fish live on the plankton.
這種魚靠吃浮游生物為生。
來自柯林斯例句
3. Plankton is at the bottom of the marine food chain.
浮游生物處于海洋食物鏈的最底層.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
4. Diatoms and other tiny organisms form Antarctic plankton.