‖ coccus
(ˈkɒkəs)
[mod.L., a. Gr. κόκκος grain, seed, berry, kermes-grain: see alkermes. In sense 2, earlier botanists used L. coccum.]
1. The genus of Homopterous insects which includes the Cochineal (C. cacti), the Kermes or Scarlet Grain (C. ilicis), the Lac insect (C. Lacca), and numerous species hurtful to many plants. Applied in Pharmacy to the dried female of the cochineal insect.
| 1763 Wolfe Cochineal in Phil. Trans. LIV. 95 The insects creep out of their coccusses from the beginning of June till the middle of August. 1813 Bingley Anim. Biog. (ed. 4) III. 197 The coccus or cochineal of the peach tree. 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. ix. 299 The die of the purple is mentioned in scripture as well as that of the coccus. 1874 Lubbock Orig. & Met. Ins. i. 26 The male Coccus is a minute, active insect, with 4 large wings. |
2. Bot. One of the carpels of a dry fruit, which burst with elasticity from the common axis.
| 1800 J. Hull Bot. I. 114 A coccum can be easily distinguished by that mark. 1821 S. F. Gray Nat. Arrangem. Brit. Plants 199 Coccum. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 130 Fruit separating into distinct cocci. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 75 Geranieæ..capsule beaked, of several 1-seeded awned cocci. |
3. Any individual bacterium of a group including the family Micrococcaceæ and characterized by a spherical or nearly spherical shape.
| 1883 [see diplococcus s.v. diplo-]. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 404/2 The filaments separate first into shorter filaments, then into rodlets, and finally into ‘cocci’. 1968 R. Cruickshank Med. Microbiol. (ed. 11) iv. 42 The different cocci are relatively uniform in size, about 1µ being the average diameter. |