‖ mucor
(ˈmjuːkɔː(r))
[L. mūcor, f. mūcēre to be mouldy.]
† 1. Mouldiness, mustiness; mould.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Mucor, hoariness, filthiness. 1847–54 in Webster; and in later Dicts. |
2. Bot. The name of a genus of fungi, originally including all the mould-plants, but now somewhat narrowed. Hence, a plant of this genus or of the order Mucorini, of which
Mucor is the type.
| [1769 Ellis in Phil. Trans. LIX. 139 note, This species of Mucor sends forth a mass of transparent filamentous roots.] 1818 Colebrooke Import. Colonial Corn 96 Mouldiness is prevented, since the seeds of mucor are shut out. 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 244/1 There are plants that are born and die in a day, such as the race of mucors. 1896 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 505 Some species of mucor are able to act as true alcoholic ferments. |
| attrib. 1875 Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. v. (1877) 40 A crop of erect aërial mucor-hyphæ. 1882 Vines tr. Sachs' Bot. 266 The so-called Mucor-yeast. |
Hence
mucoˈraceous,
ˈmucorine,
-ˈrinious,
-ˈrinous adjs., belonging to the order Mucorini (also called Mucoraceæ) of fungi;
muˈcorioid a. [see
-oid], resembling a mucor.
| 1862 Cooke Brit. Fungi 103 Mucoraceous Fungi. 1865 Berkeley in Jrnl. Linn. Soc., Bot. VIII. 141 Threads which seemed to give rise to the Mucorioid fruit. 1866 Treas. Bot. 761/2 Mucor, the typical genus of the mucorinous Moulds. 1874 Q. Jrnl. Microscop. Sci. XIV. 66 A Mucorinious fungus. 1880 Cunningham ibid. XX. 56 Reproductive bodies occurring in mucorine fungi. |