A theoretical or hypothetical air-breathing organism, or an organism that requires oxygen for life.
From 'aero-' (air) plus '-bium' (life), combining Greek elements. The term is rarely used in modern biology, which prefers 'aerobe' for oxygen-requiring organisms.
This is basically the ancestor word to the modern term 'aerobe'—it's a relic of earlier scientific terminology when researchers were just beginning to understand that some life forms absolutely need oxygen while others don't!
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