Posts tagged etymology
Top: Cow-milker infected from the teats of a cow with natural cow-pox. Large depressed vesicle with a small central crust, tumid (swollen) margin, surrounded by well-marked areola and considerable surrounding induration (hardness associated with swelling)
Bottom: Same case, one week later. Reddish brown crust typical of recovering cow-pox cases, on a reddened elevated and indurated base.
Many mammalian species have members of the Orthopoxviridae that are specialized to exist within their systems - humans have smallpox, cows have cowpox, monkeys have monkeypox, and so on (note: chicken pox is NOT a member of this group - its name comes from an old English word meaning “Itchy”, and is completely unrelated).
However, sometimes, the similar viruses can cross species barriers, as in the case of cowpox. Though the viruses are specialized to their host species enough that they don’t easily spread between atypical hosts, they’re related enough that once an individual is infected with one pox virus, their immune system is able to to recognize and fend off the whole lot of them. This is why, with the assistance of cowpox (Vaccinia) cultures in administered vaccines (rather than all of humanity having to be in direct contact with cows…), smallpox was able to be eradicated in the wild.
A Text-Book of Bacteriology, including the Etiology and Prevention of Infectious Diseases. Edgar M. Crookshank, 1897.
Ahh, what a perfectly timely post. This answers the question that had been bothering me in the back of my mind about chickenpox and smallpox immunity.
I should probably clarify that chickens DO have an Orthopoxvirus that affects them and is called “chickenpox”, but it’s not transmissible to humans (that we know of), and isn’t the Varicellovirus that causes the “chicken pox” we’re all so familiar with.
The “pox” part of “chicken pox” comes from the bumps that it causes, similar to the pox viruses. Samuel Johnson and Dr. Barnhart (1740s) explained its name as meaning “of no great danger” compared to smallpox, but some current etymologists lean towards its origin being a corruption of the Old English “giccan” - “to itch”. The term is thought to have been used colloquially for over 1500 years, but not defined in a “modern” medical sense until the 17th century.
Bottom: Short Beaked Echidna [right] (Tachyglossus aculeatus) and Western Long-Beaked Echidna [left] (Zaglossus bruijni)
Center Left: Starfish (Echinodermata spp.)
Center Right: Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Top: Echidna (mythological)
Originally, “Echidna” was a Greek mythological figure, a monstrous snake-like creature, and the mother of Cerberus, the Chimera, the Gorgon, and more. Her name roughly translates to “she-snake”, and the monotreme known as the echidna is cited in many sources as being named after her.
However, it is becoming more accepted these days that the echidna has the same etymological origins as the Greek term “ekhinus”, or “sea-urchin/porcupine [spine-skinned]”. Though similar-sounding, “ekhidna” and “ekhinos” have distinct etymological histories, and should be recognized as different terms.
It’s unknown if “ekhinus” originally referred to the sea-urchin or the hedgehog/porcupine, but the use of the term in reference to Echinaceae (coneflowers) is a direct reference to the spiny nature of the sea-urchin.
The world of Nahuatl-into-American-Spanish.
The aspirated h in “hoatzin” is a throwback to the Spanish language of the 17th century. Most Romance languages still maintain a number of words that have a silent or aspirated H at the beginning or end of the word, even though British English seems to have made a point over the past 200 years to rid itself of that device. American English (and American Spanish, which constitutes more than just North American Spanish, mind you) still has many words that use the aspirated h - most notable being “herbs”.
Long story short, the “H” is silent. The “W” sound comes from the “o”, which was originally spelled with an “ou” in English.
Special Guest post:
“Ew, you have cooties!” is more than just a childish playground taunt; cooties were (and are) a real thing, and a serious problem for much of history.
The term refers to Pediculus humanus corporis, otherwise known as the human body louse. During wartime, body lice were a scourge to soldiers and civilians in crowded conditions, and were a much more dire problem than the other human lice species (head lice and pubic lice, or “crabs”). Cooties carried typhus, a disease that killed over three million people on the former Eastern Front, between 1918 and 1922. De-lousing stations set up on both sides of the conflict kept the cootie from running rampant in Western Europe, but it was still a persistent problem throughout the war. The body louse was most notably found in German concentration camps in WWII, and the typhus carried by Pediculus humanus corporis is what killed both Anne Frank and her sister Margot.
Typhus has plagued humanity for centuries, but cooties have not. The term cootie was first coined by the British army in WWI, and is presumed to be from the Malay word kutu, meaning either biting body louse or dog tick.Today’s post by Arallyn, a humanoid from the third rock from the sun who is fascinated by science and who runs the fantastic blog biomedicalephemera.tumblr.com when she isn’t filling her mind with scientific trivia. Check out her cool blog-I don’t know where she finds her material, but it is spectacular!
Etymology is my friend.
Cooties are not.
Because maybe I shouldn’t correct/blindly accept corrections when I’m half-awake.
“-itis” means inflammation. It’s original meaning was “of the,” because it was used at the end of an anatomical part followed by the word “nosos,” meaning illness. So, “bursitis nosos” meant illness of the bursa. Current usage simply means inflammation of the named part, so “bursitis” is inflammation of the bursa.
Yes yes yes. I realize that -itis means inflammation. Maybe I should have looked at my own posts, first. The person who corrected my “fever” (which would have been “pyro-”, by the way) to “swelling” wasn’t any more wrong than me, but gave a good illustration of a common misconception about what “inflammation” is.
Acute inflammation isn’t just swelling. It’s is characterized by four signs: rubor (redness), dolor (pain), calor (“fever” - hotness at the site), and tumor (swelling). I guess if you combined my original incorrect definition with the first correction, you’re halfway there?
Thanks to Dan Urbach for the interesting etymological lesson on “-itis” and everyone else who submitted posts and questions giving me the *actual* correct definition, and reminding me that sometimes I should go back and look at my definitions before hitting “post”.
Here’s Jesus trying to destroy Darwin (and failing, I might add), because I can. You have earned it.
[cyriak]
Ok, so this was totally a typo on my part, the actual term is “skiagraph”. I’m not sure of the exact etymology, but it’s used alongside “roentenogram” and “radiograph”, but before people commonly used “x-ray” as a term.
The Greek root word “skia” means “to shine”. It’s more specifically defined as “a photographic image produced on a radiosensitive surface by radiation other than visible light (especially by X-rays or gamma rays)” [x]
Yes, they did! Cancer/growing tumors have been recorded as far back as ancient Egypt, 3000 years ago. Hippocrates recorded hard malignant tumors visible from the surface (as the Greeks did not believe in opening the body), called them carcinos because “the veins stretched on all sides as the animal the crab has its feet, whence it derives its name”
Celcus (25 BCE - 40 CE) translated carcinos into the Latin equivalent - cancer.
Unusual etymology: Afrikaans Origin
Afrikaans is a language derived from Cape Dutch, originally spoken by the Dutch farmers (Boers) living in South Africa. As the farmers established themselves in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, they encountered wildlife not known in the British-controlled Cape Colony, and gave several species common names that are still used today.
While scientific nomenclature for these species is still derived from Greek and Latin, the names that most of us know them by are derived from (or directly pulled from) Afrikaans.
Commonly referenced Boer-named species:
- Aardvark (Orycteropus afer): “Earth Pig”. So-called because of its burrowing habits and appearance. Not related to pigs, but its stout body, arched back, and sparse hair can appear pig-like from afar. Insectivore.
- Aardwolf (Proteles cristata): “Earth wolf”. An unusual relative to the hyenas that is insectivorous, and eats termites with a long, sticky tongue, not unlike the aardvark. Unrelated to wolves.
- Boomslang (Dispholidus typus): “Tree Snake”. An almost exclusively arboreal snake of sub-Saharan Africa, the one that spawned the movie trope of snakes dropping out of trees in the jungle. Though generally shy and unencountered, still very dangerous. Its slow-onset hemotoxic venom causes massive bleeding out through every orifice of the body several hours after a bite. Eats primarily birds and lizards.
- Dukier (Cephalophinae spp.): “Diver, ducker”. Any of the 21 species of antelope in the subfamily Cephalophinae, native to southern Africa. Named for their tendency to duck into tangled thickets where they cannot be followed. One of the few ruminants that regularly will supplement their diet with meat - either by hunting rodents or reptiles, rustling up insects, or finding carrion. The majority of their diet is still that of a browser (leaves and berries, as opposed to grasses and ground greenery).
- Eland (Taurotragus oryx): “Elk”. Savannah antelope that’s still widespread, though decreasing in population. The second-largest extant antelope. Was widely disliked for their tendency to trample crop fields as plants came into bloom.
- Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus): “Rock jumper”. An incredibly balanced and funny-looking small antelope that can fit all four hooves onto a single dollar-piece. Unlike most antelope, they don’t live in herds, but in mating pairs. They consume the shrubbery and grass in rocky outcroppings and craglands of Africa.
- Meerkat (Suricata suricatta): “Lake cat”. A social mongoose relative found mostly in the Kalahari desert. Carnivore that targets invertebrates, but will kill small vertebrates when opportune. “Lake cat” epithet of unknown origin - possibly a misinterpretation of the Dutch adaptation of the Sanskrit “markata”, meaning “monkey”.
- Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis): “Jumping antelope”. Note: the species name “marsupialis” is derived from the Latin “marsupium”, meaning “pocket” - this small, antelope is certainly not related to marsupials. The name comes from a pocket-like flap of skin extending from about halfway down the back, to the tail. Springboks appear in herds numbering in the tens of thousands in unfarmed regions of South Africa, and are the most plentiful antelope extant.
Through standardization of scientific names to almost exclusively Greek and Latin roots, science has a common language, known across country and cultural borders. However, in the English language (and many others), the common names for many species are directly pulled from their land of origin.
Knowing the etymology of the common names can sometimes tell you just as much as the etymology of the scientific names - what an animal was known for, where it was from, who encountered it the most, and what it signified to them often are implied in the names we sometimes dismiss because they’re “unscientific”. Knowing the cultures that knew the species well, and understanding the history of the species in relation to humans, can be the difference between extinction and preservation at times, and can be quite interesting, aside from that.
Not included above: Blesbok (“blaze antelope”), bontebok (“mottled antelope”), dassie (“badger”), grysbok (“grey antelope”), korhaan (“black grouse”), leguaan (“iguana”), padloper (“pathwalker”), platanna (“flat-handed”), skaapsteker (“sheep pricker”).
Sources:
I’ve always heard it pronounced “Aks-o-lotl”. Wikipedia says it’s /ˈæksəlɒtəl/; in the IPA (international phonetic alphabet). Basically the same as what I typed in the accent heard around my area, but what I typed could be pronounced very differently elsewhere, so the IPA guide is much more reliable. Just a bit confusing at first DX
Cross-section of human heart, displaying heart valves, chordae tendineae, and papillary muscles
Have you ever heard the expression “Tugging on your heart-strings”? Well, it’s not completely metaphorical, at least in terminology. There are literally parts of your heart known colloquially as “heart strings”, which have been described in an anatomical sense as far back as Vesalius.
These “heart strings” are more properly called chordae tendineae. You can see them in the illustration, looking like thin wires or netting within the ventricles. They start at the atrioventricular heart valves (the bicuspid or mitral and the tricuspid), and connect to the papillary muscles near the apex of the heart. The collagenous structure of these strings imparts to them a high level of strength, and the papillary muscles combined with some elastin give a high level of flexibility. they’re what keep your heart valves from everting (prolapsing) when the blood moves from the atria to the ventricles.
See, the valves have no muscular structure of their own, but work because the pressure of the blood pushing against them makes them open and close taut. But if the chordae tendineae weren’t there, that same pressure that makes sure they shut well also means that their fibrous structure would end up simply turning inside-out, and the blood would flow back into the atria, instead of to the lungs or the rest of the body. Insufficiency of the heart strings is one of many possible causes of mitral prolapse and valve insufficiency (leaky valves).
Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical. Henry Gray, 1900.
ETA: I’ve heard of testicles being called “sweetbread”, not sweetmeats, but I don’t really frequent places that serve them…
Yeah, I’ve heard Rocky Mountain Oysters (fried cattle or sheep testicles, depending on where you are, for anyone who doesn’t know) called that before, and just boiled testicles (which are apparently awful).
But the primary usage is for the lingual glands and thymus, and its application to testicles is fairly recent.
Aye, you’re online. There are LOTS of dictionaries online. Here, this is a pretty good one: Dictionary.com
But…since I’m clearing out some other questions anyway, I may as well answer yours. Sweetbread is the thymus or pancreatic meat (or sometimes other glands, like the salivary glands under the tongue) of calves or lambs. The etymology of the term isn’t very well-understood, but it originated in England, in the 16th century. The “sweet” may have referred to the comparatively-sweet flavor of the meat, compared to other, more savory meats (such as muscles).
Sweetmeat is a more recent term that I think refers to hard candies, though it may refer to sweet candy in general. I just know it’s more recent, and has nothing to do with meat, or bread.
![Physalia pelagica [Physalia physalis] - The Portuguese Man-o-War
All the fascinating biological facts about the Portuguese Man-O-War aside, did you know that its name was actually coined as a derisive snipe at the Portuguese navy? Powerful and feared for centuries, they were in a period of steep decline during the 19th century. The appearance of the Man-O-War, especially when washed ashore, struck mid-century English explorers as a capsizing ship, or a sail with no boat to propel.
In the end, I wouldn’t call the name completely derogatory. This siphonophore is the epitome of pain for most people who encounter them…they may look goofy, but unless you’re a loggerhead turtle, blue sea slug, or blanket octopus, it’s still not much to laugh at. The first two creatures eat these guys as a main part of their diet, and the blanket octopus is apparently *crazy* and will rip tentacles off of the Man-O-War, waving them around as a defensive measure.
Animaux Venimeux et Venins. Marie Phisalix, 1922.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m10j0wnnoZ1qk931ho1_400.jpg)
Physalia pelagica [Physalia physalis] - The Portuguese Man-o-War
All the fascinating biological facts about the Portuguese Man-O-War aside, did you know that its name was actually coined as a derisive snipe at the Portuguese navy? Powerful and feared for centuries, they were in a period of steep decline during the 19th century. The appearance of the Man-O-War, especially when washed ashore, struck mid-century English explorers as a capsizing ship, or a sail with no boat to propel.
In the end, I wouldn’t call the name completely derogatory. This siphonophore is the epitome of pain for most people who encounter them…they may look goofy, but unless you’re a loggerhead turtle, blue sea slug, or blanket octopus, it’s still not much to laugh at. The first two creatures eat these guys as a main part of their diet, and the blanket octopus is apparently *crazy* and will rip tentacles off of the Man-O-War, waving them around as a defensive measure.
Animaux Venimeux et Venins. Marie Phisalix, 1922.
Actinomycosis of the Neck
Despite its name, actinomycosis is not a fungal infection. Originally thought to be a mycosis of people who chewed on straw or grass, the bacteria that causes this condition (Actinomyces species) are actually anaerobic organisms that thrive in weakened or already-infected areas of the mouth and neck, and occasionally infected areas of intestine or appendix.
Prior to antibiotics and modern hygienic standards, the incidence of this infection was as high as 1 in 100,000 people, but it was still considered a rare disease of humans. In animals, however, Actinomyces cause a condition called lumpy jaw, which was (and is) far more common than human infection.
These days, the bacteria is generally seen in those who have poor dental hygiene, or who have had x-ray therapy to their gums and oral mucosa to kill cancerous cells. It’s sensitive to penicillin and other basic antibiotics, with no resistances noted as of yet, but it can take months to years to completely clear up an infection.
Introduction to Dermatology. Norman Walker, 1911.
Pieds d’Oiseaux - The Feet of Birds
You can clearly see the wide range of foot structures found in the Neornithes, and the intended usage of some of them is pretty obvious. When it comes to classifying the foot structure of birds, there are several characteristics that are noted, but the defining factor is the orientation of the digits (toes). Birds generally have four toes.
One term you might not know that’s important is the hallux - this is the innermost (“first”) digit of the foot, homologous to the big toe in humans. In birds, it often points backwards. It’s sometimes very well-developed (such as in perching birds), and sometimes so small it’s almost absent.
Anisodactyly (“unequal digit”) - This configuration is basically the standard. The three toes face forward, with the hallux facing backwards, so as to let the bird perch. This is present in songbirds and perching birds. Hawks, eagles, and falcons also have this configuration.
Syndactyly (“same digit”) - The third and fourth toes (outer and middle) are united for much of their length, and have a broad sole in common. You can see this in the kingfisher and the bee-eaters.
Zygodactyl (“yoke digit”) - The toes are arranged with digits 2 and 3 facing forwards, and digits 1 and 4 facing backwards. You can see this in parrots, woodpeckers, and roadrunners.
Heterodactyl (“different digit”) - Toes 1 and 2 are facing back, with 3 and 4 facing forward. This is only found in trogons.
Pamprodactyl (“Every digit”) - All four digits face forward, only found in swifts - this is a somewhat contested classification, as it’s believed that no birds use this as a primary configuration, even if swifts have been observed using it during their rare landings.
There are other useful terms when classifying birds by their foot structure, that have more to do with the type of bird itself, rather than the configuration of its bones. These classifications can include birds with more than one dactylous configuration.
Raptorial - Feet like the raptors and owls. These are strong, deeply cleft, with sturdy talons, meant for grasping and ripping.
Semipalmate - “Half-webbed” feet, where the anterior toes are only partially webbed. The Semipalmated Plover is a bird with these feet.
Totipalmate - “Fully webbed” feet, with all four toes united by one web - these are found on birds like cormorants.
Palmate - “Webbed” feet. These are your “basic” webbed feet - the three front toes are united, like in gulls and ducks. The fourth digit is not connected to the web.
Lobate - A swimming foot with a series of lobes along the toes. Found in birds like grebes.
Tableau Elementaire de l’Histoire Naturelle des Animaux par Georges Cuvier. 1798.
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A blog for all biological and medical ephemera, from the age of Abraham through the era of medical quackery and cure-all nostrums. Featuring illustrations, history, and totally useless trivia from the diverse realms of nature and medicine.
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