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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

rhizome en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈɹaɪzoʊm/ (General-American)
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥίζωμα (rhízōma). As philosophical metaphor, used by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

Meanings

  1. A horizontal, underground stem of some plants that sends out roots and shoots (scions) from its nodes.
    • All these species are climbing, briery plants, having long slender roots, which proceed in all directions from a common rootstalk or rhizome. 1868, George Bacon Wood, A Treatise on Therapeutics, and Pharmacology, Or Materia Medica, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Company, page 432:
  2. (qualifier:critical theory) A so-called “image of thought” that apprehends multiplicities.
    • The corpus of Kafka's writing, they argue, is ‘a rhizome, a burrow’ (K 7)—an uncentered and meandering growth like crab grass, a complex, aleatory network of pathways like a rabbit warren. A rhizome, as Deleuze and Guattari explain in Rhizome: an Introduction (1976), is the antithesis of a root-tree structure, or ‘arborescence’, the structural model which has dominated Western thought from Porphyrian trees, to Linnaean taxonomies, to Chomskyan sentence diagrams. 1989, Ronald Bogue, Deleuze and Guattari, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 107:
    • Critical theorists have often drawn from Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the rhizome when discussing the potential of the Internet. While the Internet may structurally appear as a rhizome, its day-to-day usage by millions via search engines precludes experiencing the random interconnectedness and potential democratizing function. 2008, A. Hess, “Reconsidering the Rhizome”, in Amanda Spink, Michael Zimmer, editors, Web Search: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 35:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
rhizomes Number=Plur lexicographic
rhizoma alternative lexicographic

Deriveds

rhizomic · rhizomed · microrhizome · rhizomatous · rhizomatic

Relateds

licorice · mycorrhiza

Synonyms

race · rootstalk

Translations (51)

de Wurzelstock (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · cmn 根莖 /根茎 (image of thought) · pl kłącze (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · cs oddenek (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · eo rizomo (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · it rizoma (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · fi rihmasto (image of thought) · fa ریزوم (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · cmn 根莖 /根茎 (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · mi akakōare (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · io rizomo (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · cy rhisom (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · pl kłącze (image of thought) · kk түп (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · sv rotstock (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · es rizoma (image of thought) · bo རམ་རྩ་ (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · pt rizoma (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · km មើម (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · ca rizoma (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · no jordstengel (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · ja 根茎 (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · no rhizom (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · haw ʻauaʻa (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · hu rizóma (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · tl ayuyang (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · br dangorz (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · bo རྩི་ཤིང་གི་ལྦ་རྩ་ (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · el ρίζωμα (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · ka ფესურა (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · no rotstokk (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · ru ризо́ма (image of thought) · uk ризо́ма (image of thought) · ms rizom (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · fr rhizome (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · uk кореневище (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · sv jordstam (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · fi maavarsi (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · az kökümsov (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · bg коренище (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · de Rhizom (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · cy gwreiddgyff (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · nl rizoom (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · ru корневи́ще (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · ko 땅속줄기 (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · nl wortelstok (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · fi vaakajuurakko (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · es rizoma (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · id rimpang (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · mi akakōareare (horizontal underground stem of some plants) · sv rhizom (horizontal underground stem of some plants)

wikipedia: Gilles Deleuze · wikipedia: Félix Guattari