polypier Zool.
(ˈpɒlɪpɪə(r))
[a. F. polypier (pɔlipje) (Réaumur a 1757), f. polype polyp + -ier, as in poirier, pommier, etc.]
= polypary; sometimes applied to a distinct part of this to which an individual zooid is attached. Also fig.
| 1828 Webster, Polypier, the name given to the habitations of polypes, or to the common part of those compound animals called polypes. Dict. Nat. Hist. 1856 Milne-Edwards Man. Zool. §619. 486 Sometimes each polyp has a distinct polypier, but in general it is the common portion of a mass of aggregated polypi which presents the characters peculiar to these bodies. 1868 Wright Ocean World vi. 121 Their polypier is often formed of spiculæ. 1904 A. L. Teixeira de Mattos tr. Maeterlinck's Double Garden 85 All nations have the natural right to pass through this phase of the political evolution of the human polypier. |