Having an egg yolk of a given kind.
Greek lekithos, yolk of an egg.
This suffix is found most commonly in developmental biology. Examples are: alecithal, relating to an egg with little or no food-yolk; centrolecithal, having the yolk near the centre of the egg; isolecithal (Greek isos, equal), having the yoke distributed throughout the egg; and telolecithal (Greek telos, near), having the yolk near one end of the egg.
Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Your comments are very welcome.