a. Gr. σωματο-, combining form of σῶμα, σώματ body (see SOMA2), used in a number of scientific terms, as somatocyst, a sac forming the proximal end of the hydrosoma in oceanic hydrozoa; somatogenetic a., somatogenic a. (see quots.); † somatognosy, somatology; somatoplasm, soma-plasm; somatopleure (see quot. 1874); somatopleuric a., of or belonging to the somatopleure; somatotomy, anatomy.
Many similar compounds occur in special works or are recorded in recent dictionaries, as somatoblast, -chrome, -derm, -graphy, -phyte, -phytic, etc.
1859. Huxley, Oceanic Hydrozoa, 31. The *somatocyst is narrow and subcylindrical.
1870. H. A. Nicholson, Man. Zool., 79. The proximal end of the hydrosoma is modified into a peculiar cavity called the somato-cyst.
1905. G. A. Reid, Princip. Heredity, i. 6. Acquired characters take origin (as a rule) in the cell-descendants of the germ-cell; that is, they are *somatogenetic in origin.
1889. in Rep. Brit. Assoc., 767. He [Weismann] uses the term *somatogenic to express those characters which first appear in the body itself.
1811–31. Bentham, Logic, App. Wks. 1843, VIII. 284. Somatology, *somatognosy, or somatics.
1889. trans. Weismamn’s Ess. Heredity, etc. 104. If the germ-plasm and the substance of the body, the *somatoplasm, have always occupied different spheres.
1890. Weismann, in Nature, 6 Feb., 320/2. My germ-plasm or idioplasm of the first ontogenetic grade is not modified into the somatoplasm of Prof. Vines.
1874. Foster & Balfour, Elem. Embryol., 38. The upper (or outer) leaf of the blastoderm, from its giving rise to the body-walls, is called the *somatopleure.
1888. Q. Jrnl. Microscopic Sci., XXVIII. 111. The lower end lies outside the angle…, between the somatopleure and splanchnopleure.
1874. Foster & Balfour, Elem. Embryol., 39. The *somatopleuric investment of the yolk sac.
1900. Nature, 12 April, 560/2. Prior to the formation of the somatopleuric system represented by the cardinal veins, &c.
1851. Dunglison, Dict. Med. Sci., 797/1. *Somatotomy.
