in compounds, "having cells" (of a certain number or type), from late 18c., from cell (n.).

also blood-thirsty, "eager to shed blood," 1530s (Coverdale, Psalms xxv.9), from blood (n.) + thirsty (adj.). Compare Dutch bloeddorstig, German blutdürstig. Ancient Greek had a similar image in haimodipsos. Related: Bloodthirstiness.

1753, "consisting of or resembling cells," with reference to tissue, from Modern Latin cellularis "of little cells," from cellula "little cell," diminutive of cella "small room" (see cell). Of mobile phone systems (in which the area served is divided into "cells" of a few square miles served by transmitters), 1977. Related: Cellularity.

"protoplasm, organic substance forming the essential constituent of cells," 1870, from cyto- "cell" + -plasm. Related: Cytoplasmic.

"blood-drinking," 1821, from Latin sanguis "blood" (see sanguinary) + -vorous "eating, devouring." Also sanguivorous, from the Latin genitive stem.

also blood-shot, of the eye, "red and inflamed by swelling of blood vessels," 1550s, short for bloodshotten (c. 1500), from blood (n.) + old past participle of shoot (v.).

(plural spermatozoa), "male sexual cell," 1836, from spermato- + Greek zoion "animal" (from PIE root *gwei- "to live"). Related: Spermatozoal.

late 14c., "blood-red, of a blood-red color" (late 12c. as a surname), from Old French sanguin (fem. sanguine) and directly from Latin sanguineus "of blood," also "bloody, bloodthirsty," from sanguis (genitive sanguinis) "blood" (see sanguinary).

The meaning "cheerful, hopeful, vivacious, confident" is attested by c. 1500, because these qualities were thought in old medicine to spring from an excess or predominance of blood as one of the four humors. The sense of "of or pertaining to blood" (mid-15c.) is rare.

 Also in Middle English as a noun, a type of red cloth (early 14c.). It sometimes was used in the senses now going with sanguinary.

1844, from hemo- "blood" + -phobia "fear." Perhaps based on French hémophobie. Originally in reference to fear of medical blood-letting.

"having no nuclear membrane in its cell" (as bacteria and blue-green algae), 1957, from prokaryote + -ic. Related: Prokaryon.