bacterium
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GC: n

S: WebMD – http://www.webmd.boots.com/eye-health/news/20140417/bacteria-surviving-contact-lens-cleaning (last access: 5 November 2014); MEDLP – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bacterialinfections.html (last access: 5 November 2014).

N:1. 1847, plural of Modern Latin bacterium, from Greek bakterion “small staff,” diminutive of baktron “stick, rod,” from PIE *bak– “staff used for support” (also source of Latin baculum “rod, walking stick”). So called because the first ones observed were rod-shaped. Introduced as a scientific word 1838 by German naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876).
2. Unicellular prokaryotic that commonly multiplies by cell division and whose cell is typically contained within a cell wall.
3. They may be aerobic or anaerobic, motile or non-motile, and may be free-living, saprophytic, parasitic, or even pathogenic, the last causing disease in plants or animals.
4. Examples of diseases caused by bacteria include anthrax, botulism, plague, tularemia, brucellosis, cholera, glanders and psittacosis.
5. Plural: bacteria.
6. bacterium: term in the plural standardized by ISO.
7. Cultural Interrelation: Bacterium (2006) by Brett Piper.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=bacterium&searchmode=none (last access: 6 November 2014). 2 to 6. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 6 November 2014). 7. IMDB – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0835419/ (last access: 23 June 2016).

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CR: anthrax, antibiotic, antifungal, bacillus, bacteriophage, Bifidobacterium bifidum, biodegradation, bioterrorism, botulism, brucellosis, cholera, coccus, diphtheria, fungus, gonorrhea, Gram-negative bacterium, Gram-positive bacterium, Gram stain, Helicobacter pylori, klebsiella, microorganism, parasite, pathogen, pathogenic, penicillin, plague, probiotic, pseudomonas, pyelonephritis, salmonella, salmonellosis, strain, streptomycin, stye, trachoma, triple vaccine, tuberculosis, tularemia, urobilinogen, virus, Whipple’s disease, zoonosis.