zoomorphic

Did You Know?

Zoo- (or zo-) derives from the Greek word zōion, meaning "animal," and -morph comes from the Greek morphē, meaning "form." These two forms combined to give us the adjective zoomorphic, which was first used in English to describe something that resembles an animal in 1872. English includes other words that were formed from zoo- or zo-, such as zoology (made with -logy, meaning "science"). We also have other words that were formed from -morph, such as pseudomorph, for a mineral having the outward form of another species. (The combining form pseud- or pseudo- means "false.")