Pronounced: puh-LOO-zuhr, noun
Notes: Interesting word
Yesterday’s word
The word poikilotherm is “an organism with a variable body temperature usually slightly higher than that of its environment”.
First usage
Our word came into English in the 1920s
Background / Comments
You may know the word “ectotherm” (it is vaguely familiar to me), which came about about 20 years after our word (in the early 1940s); I know the term “cold-blooded” better. My recognition of the two parts was only partly correct; our word actually came from the Greek words poikilos (spotted; varied) and therme (heat). So, I was right about “therm” and wrong about “kilo”. Just as “cold-blooded” has two other words, so does “warm-blooded” — the similar words are “endotherm” and “homeotherm”. Finally, there is also a “stenotherm”, which is a creature that can only survive within a narrow temperature range.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 