pleroma
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /plɪˈɹəʊmə/
ipa: /pləˈɹoʊmə/
rhymes: -əʊmə
Forms: form: pleromas
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Late Latin pleroma (“(Gnosticism) spiritual universe seen as the totality of the essence and powers of God”), from Koine Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōmă, “(biblical) perfect fullness”), Ancient Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōmă, “that which fills, a complement; a filling up, a completing”), from πληρόω (plēróō, “to make full, fill; to complete, finish”) (from πλήρης (plḗrēs, “complete, full”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + -όω (-óō, suffix forming verbs with the sense of making someone be or do something)) + -μᾰ (-mă, suffix forming nouns denoting the result or effect of an action).
Sense 1.1 (“plant”) is borrowed from New Latin Pleroma, a genus name coined by the Scottish botanist David Don (1799–1841) in 1822, from Ancient Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōmă) (see above) to describe the way the seeds of the plant filled the capsule.
Sense 2 (“state of perfect fullness”) is chiefly used in reference to Colossians 2:9 of the Bible: “Ὅτι ἐν αὐτῶῳ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς (Hóti en autôōi katoikeî pân tò plḗrōma tês theótētos sōmatikôs) [For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form]”.
Senses: topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A plant of the genus Pleroma.
examples: text: In his [Jakob Eriksson's] investigations of the meristem (the tissue from which the permanent tissues are formed) by dicotyledonous roots he found four types of growth, […] In the second type only two separate meristem tissues are present in the tips of the roots; a pleroma and a common tissue, from which the primary bark and epidermis and root-cap proceed.
ref: 1876 December 9, “[Punctum vegetationis, or Growing Point of Dicotyledonous Roots]”, in The Gardeners’ Chronicle. A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Horticulture and Allied Subjects, volume VI (New Series), number 154, London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 750, column 1:
text: [I]n the pleroma of the primary meristem of roots there is not only cambium (persistent parenchyma) and procambium (forerunner of fibres and vessels), but pericambium—i.e., a special outer layer of the plerome that remains for a long time as meristem.
ref: 1890 August 22, Edward Aveling, “Botany for Students. Chapter XXII.—The Root.”, in The English Mechanic and World of Science and Art. […], volume LI, number 1326, London: […] E[beneezer] J. Kibblewhite, […], →OCLC, page 543, column 2:
text: In the pleroma of hyacinth and pea roots, t#95;#123;min#125; increases along the meristem, especially in its basal part[…].
ref: 2001, Russian Journal of Developmental Biology: A Journal of Original Papers and Reviews on Developmental and Cell Biology, volume 32, Moscow: Pleiades Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 205, column 1:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: Synonym of plerome (“the central portion of the apical meristem in a growing plant root or stem which, according to the histogen theory, gives rise to the endodermis and stele”).
synonyms: word: plerome
extra: the central portion of the apical meristem in a growing plant root or stem which, according to the histogen theory, gives rise to the endodermis and stele
examples: text: And is all this Cabala too, and only to be uſed when People are to be gulled with noiſy Nothings? i.e. with empty Pleroma's, and ſilent Thunderclaps.
ref: 1697 May 5 (date written; Gregorian calendar), E. W. [i.e., Edward Stillingfleet], “Postscript”, in The Bishop of Worcester’s Answer to Mr. [John] Locke’s Letter, Concerning Some Passages Relating to His Essay of Humane Understanding, […], London: […] J. H. for Henry Mortlock […], published 1697, →OCLC, page 143:
topics: Christianity
glosses: A state of perfect fullness, especially of God's being as incarnated in Jesus Christ.
Derived terms: pleromatic