Mycology

The first entry is le carpophore, and the word says in Greek exactly what the sentence beside it says in French: this is the part that carries the fruit, and the fungus itself is elsewhere. Two pieces build it. The first is karpos, fruit, which English keeps in the botanist’s « pericarp » and « carpel ». The second is pherein, to carry, and once it has been pointed out it is everywhere. A « metaphor » is a thing carried across from one place to another, from metapherein. « Phosphorus » is the light-carrier, named for its glow. The « periphery » is what is carried round the outside. And « Christopher » is the man who carried Christ over the river. French still builds with the ending where English would rather describe: it has le carpophore for this and un sémaphore for the sign-carrier on the coast, while English says « fruiting body » and keeps its own -phore words for what it inherited rather than for what it makes.