entry
cyclostome
/ˈsaɪkloʊstoʊm/Jawless fish with a round, sucker-like mouth
From Greek cyclo (circle) + Greek stome (mouth).
Word Ancestry
Picture a lamprey: a long, eel-like fish whose mouth looks less like a fish’s mouth than a living suction cup lined with teeth. That visual gave zoologists the name Cyclostomata, built from Greek kýklos, “circle,” and stóma, “mouth”—so the animal is, in effect, a “round-mouth.” The mouth-part has an impressive family tree: stoma also appears in stomatology, the study of the mouth, while cyclo- turns up in cycle and cyclic, words that still carry the idea of something moving in a ring. In 19th-century zoology, cyclostome usually grouped lampreys and hagfish as primitive jawless fishes, although scientists later argued over whether the group was a natural evolutionary unit; molecular evidence has since strongly supported their shared ancestry. The useful picture to remember is simple: a cyclostome is a fish whose mouth is built like a circle rather than a hinged jaw.
The Story
Picture a lamprey: a long, eel-like fish whose mouth looks less like a fish’s mouth than a living suction cup lined with teeth. That visual gave zoologists the name Cyclostomata, built from Greek kýklos, “circle,” and stóma, “mouth”—so the animal is, in effect, a “round-mouth.” The mouth-part has an impressive family tree: stoma also appears in stomatology, the study of the mouth, while cyclo- turns up in cycle and cyclic, words that still carry the idea of something moving in a ring. In 19th-century zoology, cyclostome usually grouped lampreys and hagfish as primitive jawless fishes, although scientists later argued over whether the group was a natural evolutionary unit; molecular evidence has since strongly supported their shared ancestry. The useful picture to remember is simple: a cyclostome is a fish whose mouth is built like a circle rather than a hinged jaw.
Kin & Kindred
From 'cyclo'·circle; wheel; ring
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'stome'·mouth; opening
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary