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Glite Dictionary
brown cup

brown cup

9.9
A small brown mushroom that looks like a cup and grows on dead wood in damp places
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : copa marrón
  • The brown cup is commonly found on decaying wood in damp forests.

Examples

  • Hikers often encounter a brown cup growing on the forest floor, especially near fallen trees.

  • Some gardeners remove brown cups to prevent the spread of fungal infections.

  • Scientists studied the brown cup to understand its role in plant disease.

  • I found a brown cup in the forest.

  • Look! A brown cup mushroom!

  • Researchers identified the brown cup fungus as a significant factor in soil health.

  • The brown cup was part of a study examining the effects of fungal species on crops.

Synonyms

sclerotinia
vsbrown cup
  • Specialized
9.9

A fungus that causes brown rot on plants like fruits and vegetables

is a species with a concave, colored fruiting body rather than the whole group

Surface Forms

brown cup singular
brown cups plural

Morphology

brown + cup

The meaning is directly compositional: 'brown' (a color) modifying 'cup' (a bowl-shaped object) yields the straightforward interpretation of a brown, cup-shaped thing. This adjective + noun pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the referent (even if they might not recognize it as a specific fungus species).

Etymology

Brown cup comes from how the organism looks: it makes a small, brown, cup-shaped growth that looks like a tiny cup, so people named it using brown and cup. That's why the name means a brown, cup-shaped 'fungus'.