tropic

adj

Etymology: From Late Latin tropicus (“of or pertaining to the solstice, as a noun, one of the tropics”), from Ancient Greek τροπικός (tropikós, “of or pertaining to a turn or change; or the solstice; or a trope or figure; tropic; tropical; etc.”), from τροπή (tropḗ, “turn; solstice; trope”).

1. Of, or relating to the tropics; tropical.
2. Of, or relating to the tropics; tropical.
3. Having the quality of indirectly inducing a biological or chemical change in a system or substrate.

   “The binding of oxygen to hemoglobin is allosterically regulated by various tropic factors, such as BPG and acidity.”

4. Pertaining to, involving, or of the nature of a trope or tropes.

   “This process of tropic change, once identified in nostalgia poems, can be applied to a range of new and emerging genres in various periods. Identifying the tropes of nostalgia, in other words, allows us to appreciate the process[…]”

   “Tropes may also interact with other tropes: a trope (for example, a metonymic association) may become an element in a different trope (for instance, a metaphor), and thus undergo a transformation of its tropic identity.”

noun

1. Alternative form of tropic (one of two specific lines of latitude that divide the Northern and Southern hemispheres, respectively; the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn).