Acinetobacter baumannii
- noun
- /ˌæsɪnɪˈtoʊbæktər baʊˈmɑːni/
- Specialized
- In hospitals, infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii can lead to severe health complications.
Examples
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Control measures are critical to prevent the spread of Acinetobacter baumannii in clinical settings.
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Researchers are studying Acinetobacter baumannii to understand its resistance to commonly used antibiotics.
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The capsular polysaccharide, glycoproteins, and hepta-acylated lipooligosaccharide (LOS) all contribute to the virulence of Acinetobacter baumannii.
Academic text (2018)
Surface Forms
Morphology
Acinetobacter + baumannii
This is a Linnaean binomial combining a genus name ('Acinetobacter') with a species epithet ('baumannii'), so the meaning — the name of a particular bacterial species — is directly compositional from the constituents. The genus+species naming pattern is standard in scientific registers and cross-linguistically familiar, so a learner who recognises the taxonomic construction will understand it without needing idiomatic knowledge.
Etymology
Acinetobacter baumannii gets its name from Acinetobacter, a word from Greek meaning 'not moving' because these bacteria do not swim, and baumannii, which honors a scientist named Baumann. So the name shows it is a bacterium that 'does not move' and today it refers to a hospital bug often resistant to antibiotics.