Relating to or resembling alcyonaria (soft corals) or possessing their characteristic features like soft bodies and eight-fold symmetry.
From alcyon (soft coral) plus the adjectival suffix -ic, a productive English pattern for creating adjectives from Greek and Latin roots. The form became standardized in 19th-century marine biology.
When marine biologists want to describe something as having the squishy, flexible qualities of soft corals, they use this word—it's shorthand for 'eight-tentacled and wonderfully bendy!'
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