combining form repr. Gr. τρόπος turning, etc. (see TROPE), occurring in a few modern technical terms. Tropometer [-METER], an instrument for measuring the angle of turning or torsion of some part of the body, as the eye-ball or a long bone. Tropophil, Tropophilous adjs. [Gr. -φιλος loving], applied to a plant adapted to a climate that is alternately moist and dry (or cold, the physiological effect of cold being similar to that of dryness); so Tropophyte [Gr. φυτόν plant], a tropophilous plant; whence Tropophytic a. Tropostereoscope, a stereoscope with an arrangement for rotating the figures so as to bring them into some required position, in experiments on vision.
1881. Athenæum, 1 June, 787/1. The *tropometer, an instrument for measuring the angle of torsion of the humerus.
1902. I. B. Balfour, in Encycl. Brit., XXV. 439/2. Parasitism … occurs in … *tropophil woods of temperate regions, and alpine slopes.
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, *Tropophilous,… loving, change of condition, as Tropophytes.
1903. trans. Schimper’s Plant-Geog., I. i. 21. The vegetation of districts with climates alternately damp and dry or cold, is alternately of a hygrophilous and of a xerophilous character; it is therefore tropophilous.
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, *Tropophyte.
1903. trans. Schimper’s Plant-Geog., I. i. 3. It appears … necessary to place in a third category all plants whose conditions of life are, according to the season of the year, alternately those of hygrophytes or of xerophytes. All such plants, including … the great majority of the plants composing the Central European flora, should be termed tropophytes. Ibid. There are hygrophytic, xerophytic, and *tropophytic climates.
1901. Titchener, Exper. Psychol., I. II. 272. Ludwig’s *tropostereoscope … is … a refined form of the tube stereoscope.
