Fungi: Eng. mycology ~ Sp. micología
The name for the scientific study of fungi is mycology
[maɪ̯ˈkʰɒləʤi] in English and micología in Spanish, two
obvious cognates. These words were coined in the early 19th century, first in
English, and then the word was calqued into other languages, such as French mycologie,
replacing an earlier mycétologie, attested in 1839, which may have
served as the inspiration for Eng. mycology, as well as into Spanish.
The basis for these words is the New Latin word mycologia, formed from the
Greek root myc‑ (combining form: myc‑o‑, with a linking ‑o‑
vowel) and the Latin ‘suffix’ ‑logia ‘‑logy’, also of Greek origin (cf.
Part I, Chapter 8). The root myc‑ is a loanword from Ancient Greek,
namely from the noun μῠ́κης
(múkēs) ‘mushroom, other fungus’, whose root was μῠ́κ‑
(múk‑). Note that this word is cognate with Latin mūcus ‘mucus, snivel’,
source of Eng. mucus and Sp. moco ‘mucus, snot’ (which presumably
came from the vulgar Latin variant mŭccus). All of these words descend from Proto-Indo-European
stem *mew‑k‑ ‘slimy, slippery’ (cf. above in the discussion of Eng. mold).
In addition to this word, there are other English and
Spanish words that contain the Greek root myc‑ (with or without the
linking vowel ‑o‑). One is the noun mycosis [maɪ̯ˈkʰoʊ̯sɪs]
(Sp. micosis), which refers to an ‘infection with or disease caused by a
fungus’ (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate). This New Latin word was first created
in 1876 and it was formed from the Latinate suffix ‑osis (cf. Lat. ‑ōsis,
ultimately from Ancient Greek ‑ωσις
(-ōsis) ‘state, abnormal condition, or action’, found in ‑όω (-óō) stem verbs with the
noun-forming suffix ‑σις (-sis)
from an earlier ‑τις (-tis) that
formed abstract nouns or nouns of action, result or process, a suffix that is
cognate with Latin suffix ‑tĭō
that has given us the English ending ‑tion and its Spanish cognate ‑ción.
Derived from the English noun mycosis (Sp. micosis)
we have the adjective mycotic [maɪ̯ˈkʰɒɾɪk], as in mycotic
dermatitis ‘inflammation of the skin caused by a fungus’ (WNTIU), mycotic pneumonia ‘brooder pneumonia of
the chicken’ (WNTIU) or mycotic stomatitis ‘thrush of cattle and other
ruminants’ (WNTIU). There is a Spanish cognate of this adjective, namely micótico/a,
though it is not found in any of the most common Spanish dictionaries, only in technical,
medical ones. A perhaps more common alternative in everyday Spanish to the
adjective micótico/a is the modifier phrase de hongos ‘of fungi’.
Another English word that contains the root myc‑ is mycocide,
which does not appear in most English dictionaries, even the OED. It appears in
Webster’s New Third International Unabridged Dictionary, which defines
the word as ‘a fungicide that destroys molds’, and not just any fungus (WNTIU).
This word was created in English by means of the Latinate pseudo-suffix ‑cide
(cf. Part I, Chapter 5, §5.12.1).
The adjective derived from this noun is mycocidal, again derived by
means of the Latinate suffix ‑al that derives adjectives from nouns,
though that word is even more technical. Some dictionaries say it is equivalent
to fungicidal or antifungal (see above).
Medical Spanish has calqued these words, resulting in the
single word micocida, which in Spanish is an adjective, equivalent to
Eng. mycocidal. Other Spanish words with the suffix ‑cida are
both adjectives and nouns, though they were originally just adjectives that came
to be used as nouns, probably under the influence of their English
counterparts. So, for instance, Sp. insecticida is equivalent to Eng. insecticidal
and insecticide, and Sp. homicida is equivalent to the English
adjective homicidal and the noun murderer (cf. Eng. homicide
= Sp. homicidio).
Yet another rather common word these days that contains this
root is mycotoxin ‘any toxic substance produced by a fungus’ (COED).
This noun was coined in English in the 1960s. This word has been calqued into
Spanish as micotoxina, a word that, like micocida, has yet to
appear in regular Spanish dictionaries.
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