Word of the Day: May 25, 2009 - plankton

plankton (plangk-tuhn) - noun

Plankton is "the aggregate of passively floating, drifting, or somewhat motile organisms occurring in a body of water, primarily comprising microscopic algae and protozoa."

First used in the written form around 1890-1895. The ultimate source of the word plankton is from the Greek word plázein, meaning "hit," which is a descendant of the same base as produced English apoplexy, plague, and plectrum. The link between these two unlikely-sounding relatives is that something that is hit moves or wanders, and plankton is 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.