The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified.
Some kinds of oyster are commonly consumed, cooked or raw, by humans as a delicacy. Other kinds such as pearl oysters, generally not eaten by humans, are harvested for the pearl produced within the mantle.
Read more about Oyster: Etymology, Anatomy, Habitat and Behaviour, Marine Pollution, Human History, Oysters As Food, Diseases
Famous quotes containing the word oyster:
“But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal.... No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1907–1960)
“From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“I had rather be an oyster than a man, the most stupid and senseless of animals.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)