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pho·ro·nid

(fə-rōnĭd)

Any of several small, wormlike marine animals of the phylum Phoronida that have a U-shaped digestive tract and inhabit self-made chitinous tubes.

[From New Latin Phorōnida, phylum name, from Phorōnis, type genus name (chosen in 1856 by their discoverer, Scottish biologist Thomas Strethill Wright, following a tradition of naming marine worm genera after goddesses connected with the sea, and perhaps specifically in reference to the phoronids' crown of delicate tentacles), from Latin Phorōnis, a name of Isis, Io worshipped as Isis (originally meaning “the Argive princess”), from Greek Phorōneus, brother of Io, king of Argos, and son of the river god Inachus and the Oceanid Melia, from Greek Phorōneus, brother of Io, king of Argos, and son of the river god Inachus and the Oceanid Melia.]

pho·ronid adj.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

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