parasite

From Middle French parasite, from Latin parasitus, from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos, “person who eats at the table of another”), from noun use of adjective meaning "feeding beside", from παρά (pará, “beside”) + σῖτος (sîtos, “food”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/, /ˈpɛɹəˌsaɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Hyphenation: par‧a‧site

parasite (plural parasites)

1. (derogatory) A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back. [from 16th c.]
2. (derogatory) A sycophant or hanger-on.
3. (biology) An organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.
   • 2013 March 1, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 2, page 83:

     It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.

   Lice, fleas, ticks and mites are widely spread parasites.

4. (literary, poetic) A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc. [from 19th c.]
   • 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, I:

     Her golden tresses shade / The bosom’s stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column.

• (useless person): See also Thesaurus:scrounger

• commensal (doing no noticeable harm)
• mutualist or sometimes symbiote (beneficial)

• symbiont
• obligate
• facultative

• “parasite” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

• aspirate, pastiera, septaria

• IPA^(key): /pa.ʁa.zit/
• Homophones: parasitent, parasites

Borrowed from Latin parasītus, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos).

parasite m (plural parasites)

1. a parasite

parasite (plural parasites)

1. parasitic

See the etymology of the main entry.

parasite

1. first-person singular present indicative of parasiter
2. third-person singular present indicative of parasiter
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of parasiter
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of parasiter
5. second-person singular imperative of parasiter

• “parasite” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

parasīte

1. vocative singular of parasītus

parasite

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of parasitar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of parasitar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of parasitar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of parasitar

parasite

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of parasitar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of parasitar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of parasitar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of parasitar.