English

Alternative forms

• aëtheogam

Noun

aetheogam ‎(plural aetheogams)

1. (botany) A cryptogam; a plant of the obsolete taxonomic class Cryptogamia, having neither stamina nor pistils, and therefore no proper flowers, such as an alga, fern, fungus, lichen or moss.

Usage notes

• Being derived from the two vowels ἀή ‎(aḗ) (alpha-eta: aē), rather than the diphthong αἰ ‎(ai) (alpha-iota: ai), the initial ae- of aetheogam can only properly be written as two separate letters (ae), with a diaeresis atop the e (as aëtheogam) being optional; the spellings *ætheogam and *etheogam are, therefore, erroneous.

Derived terms

• aetheogamous (botany)

Synonyms

• cryptogam

References

1. 1 2 “aetheogam” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]