different between disperse vs elaiosome

English

Etymology

From French disperser, from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergere (“to scatter abroad, disperse”), from dis- (“apart”) + spargere (“to scatter”); see sparse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??sp??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??sp??s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s
• Hyphenation: dis?perse

Verb

disperse (third-person singular simple present disperses, present participle dispersing, simple past and past participle dispersed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To scatter in different directions.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:disperse
2. (transitive, intransitive) To break up and disappear; to dissipate.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To disseminate.
4. (physics, transitive, intransitive) To separate rays of light, etc., according to wavelength; to refract.
5. (transitive, intransitive) To distribute throughout.

Usage notes

• Do not confuse with the monetary word disburse, despite the two being near homophones and having a degree of semantic similarity (in which disbursed money may be dispersed among expenses). A mnemonic to help make the difference obvious (which uses a cognate of each word) is that d?s-burs-ing is taking money out of the purse, whereas d?-spers-ing causes something to be sparsely scattered.

Derived terms

Related terms

• dispersal
• dispersible
• dispersion

Translations

Adjective

disperse (comparative more disperse, superlative most disperse)

1. Scattered or spread out.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• Perseids, despiser, perseids, presides

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis.p??s/

Verb

disperse

1. inflection of disperser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative
   2. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• perdisse, prédises, prédisse, présides

German

Adjective

disperse

1. inflection of dispers:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Adjective

disperse

1. feminine plural of disperso

Noun

disperse f pl

1. plural of dispersa

Verb 1

disperse

1. inflection of disperdere:
   1. third-person singular past historic
   2. third-person singular past historic

Verb 2

disperse f

1. feminine plural of disperso

Anagrams

• depressi, perdessi, predisse

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /dis?per.se/, [d??s??p?rs??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /dis?per.se/, [d?is?p?rs?]

Participle

disperse

1. vocative masculine singular of dispersus

References

• disperse in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• disperse in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• disperse in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Portuguese

Verb

disperse

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of dispersar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of dispersar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of dispersar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of dispersar

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis?pe?se/, [d?is?pe?.se]

Verb

disperse

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of dispersar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of dispersar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of dispersar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of dispersar.

English

Etymology

Ancient Greek ?????? (élaion, “olive oil”) + ???? (sóma, “body”).

Noun

elaiosome (plural elaiosomes)

1. (botany) A fleshy structure rich in lipids attached to the seeds of many plant species, usually to attract ants that disperse the seeds.
   • 1999, Karen van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, Margaretha W. van Rooyen, Dispersal Biology of Desert Plants, Springer, page 17,

     Ants collect the diaspores for the edible elaiosome, carry them to their nests and consume the elaiosomes. Sometimes, the elaiosome content is sucked from the diaspores, or the elaiosome is loosened on the way to the nest.

   • 2003, Elena Gorb, Stanislav S. N. Gorb, Seed Dispersal by Ants in a Deciduous Forest Ecosystem: Mechanisms, Strategies, Adaptations, Kluwer Academic Publications, page 44,

     Experiments with removal of C.^[Corydalis] cava seeds with elaiosomes ablated, and with paper balls, infiltrated with juices of seed bodies and elaiosomes, showed the crucial role of elaiosome content in the ant attraction.

   • 2007, Victor Rico-Gray, Paulo S. Oliveira, The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions, University of Chicago Press, page 47,

     Elaiosomes also vary in size, and ants in many instances preferentially disperse diaspores with the greatest elaiosome/diaspore mass ratio, although plants produce seeds of different sizes, allowing for a variety of ants to effect their dispersal

Hyponyms

• caruncle

Translations

See also

• diaspore
• myrmecochory