-plasmcomb. form

Etymology: < post-classical Latin plasma or its etymon ancient Greek πλάσμα something formed, moulded, or simulated (see plasma n.). Compare German -plasma (formations in which are found from at least the first half of the 19th cent.), French -plasme (formations in which are found from at least the late 19th cent.).Attested earliest in the second half of the 16th cent. in the French loan cataplasm n. and subsequently in the late 17th cent. in the classical Latin loan proplasm n. Formations in English are found from the first half of the 18th cent., earliest in mythoplasm n., but remain rare before the second half of the 19th cent. The majority of examples are 19th- and 20th-cent. terms in the life sciences (many of which are adaptations of German formations in -plasma), usually denoting a kind of living tissue, and most do not have an antecedent classical equivalent. Combined with first elements of ultimately Greek (or occasionally Latin) origin.