mirasorvone
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A defensive compound secreted by the sunburst diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus).
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Two major volatile components of this secretion are steroids; cybisterone (structure 7) constitutes about 20% of the volatiles, and a new steroid, mirasorvone, about 50%."
- "In one particularly beautiful dytiscid, the speckled Thermonectus marmoratus, the secretion contains two steroids, cybisterone (74) and mirasorvone (75). The former compound occurs in other dytiscids as well, but mirasorvone, an 18-oxygenated steroid, is not known from other insects."
Etymology
Mira + Sorvino + -one. Named after American actress Mira Sorvino. Coined by American entymologist Thomas Eisner. Eisner chose to name the secretion after Sorvino, in memory of the good times that Eisner had training Sovino as an ersatz etymologist, for her role in the 1997 U.S. horror film Mimic.