parasite

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/ (UK); /ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/, /ˈpɛɹəˌsaɪt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French parasite and directly from Latin parasītus (“one who lives by amusing the rich; sponger”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos, “one who eats at another's table”), a noun use of an adjective meaning “feeding beside”,^[2][3][4][6] from Ancient Greek παρά (pará, “beside”) + σῖτος (sîtos, “grain, food”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who eats at the table of another, a hanger-on who frequents rich tables and earns his welcome by flattery (1539).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In ancient Greece a parasitos could be a professional dinner guest who received free meals for flattery or amusing talk.^[2][6][7] The biological sense, an animal or plant that lives on or in another organism and draws nourishment from it, appeared in English in the early 18th century (1727–41),^[7][3] though Etymonline finds it implied in parasitical from the 1640s.^[4] The figurative sense of a person who lives off others then took on the colouring of the biological one.^[7]

Timeline

• 1539 – a hanger-on at rich tables.^[7][3][5]
• 1577–87 – parasitical.^[3]
• 1727–41 – an organism living on another.^[7][3]
• 1813 – loosely, a climbing plant.^[7]
• 1883 – figuratively, a person acting like a parasite.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An organism that lives in or on an organism of another species, its host, and feeds on it without benefiting it.
2. A person who habitually takes advantage of others' generosity without making a useful return; a sponger.
3. A person who lives off and flatters the rich; a sycophant.
4. (history) In ancient Greece, a professional dinner guest who paid with flattery or entertainment.

Word family

• parasitically
• ectoparasite
• endoparasite

Related words

• sito-
• parasitic
• sycophant
• leech
• host

Usage notes

Random House lists sycophant, toady, leech, sponge and hanger-on as synonyms of the human sense.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press