cryptosporidium
- 1A single-celled parasite that lives in the intestines of humans and other animals and can cause diarrhea, especially in people with weak immunity.
Tests confirmed that cryptosporidium had contaminated the public swimming pool.
In patients with HIV, cryptosporidium can cause persistent and dangerous diarrhea.
Note
A name taken straight from taxonomy: Latin crypto- "hidden" plus sporidium "spore," for a parasite classed among the alveolates. Capitalized and italicized, Cryptosporidium is the genus; lowercase, cryptosporidium is the everyday noun for the organism. The plural keeps its Latin shape. Mary C. Smith and David M. Sherman's Goat Medicine (2009) reports that cryptosporidia were isolated more often than rotavirus in newborn goats with diarrhea.
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Origin
A 20th-century translingual coinage from the genus name Cryptosporidium, formed from Latin crypto- ("hidden") plus sporidium ("spore").