zooecium

noun

zo·​oe·​ci·​um zō-ˈē-shē-əm 

variants or less commonly zoecium

plural zooecia also zoecia zō-ˈē-shē-ə 

: a sac or chamber secreted and lived in by a bryozoan zooid

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from zo- zo- + Greek oikíon "house, dwelling, nest," derivative of oîkos "house, dwelling" — more at vicinity

Note: Alternatively, -oecium could be from Greek oikía "household, home" and the Latin compounding suffix -ium; for a possible model see androecium, androecium. The term zooecium was introduced by the Swedish zoologist Frederik Adam Smitt (1839-1904) in "Oms Hafs-Bryozoernas utveckling och fettkroppar," Öfversigt af Konigliga Vetenskaps-Akademien Förhandlingar, 22. årgången, 1865 (Stockholm, 1866), p. 115; the vernacular equivalent of it in the same publication is djurhus.

First Known Use

1871, in the meaning defined above