chondroblastoma

Term: chondroblastoma

Origin: Anc Greek

χόνδρος/chondros(=thick, coarse salt,  soft bone, cartilages in the region between the ribs and navel)

βλάστη> blastos (=sprout, germ)

 >βάλ-λω/valo(=push, throw) + ίστημι/istimi(=put)

+ -ωμα/-oma(=-oma, suffix meaning a state or a condition eg disease condition)

Coined

The term was coined by Jaffe HL and Lichtenstein L in 1942 distinguishing it from giant cell tumor, and assuming the possible origin of this tumor from rests of the fetal chondroid skeleton.

Definition

Chondroblastoma is a type of benign tumor that is caused by embryonic cells, often called blasts in in the cartilage in epiphysis or apophysis of a long bone usually in young patients. Most chondroblastomas are found close to the knee joint.

endoskeleton

Term: endoskeleton

Origin: Anc Greek

ενδο/endo(=inside, within)

σκελετός/skeletos (= the group of bones of an animal body)

> σκέλλω /skello(=dry up)

> σκληρός/scleros(=hard)

Definition

An endospore is a dormant and temporarily non-reproductive structure produced by certain bacteria under unfavorable conditions. Although word “spore” indicates a “plant embryo”  the endospores are not offsprings but  bacteria in different state.  

poikilothermy

Term: poikilothermy

Origin: Anc Greek

ποικίλος/poikilos(=variant)

θερμός/thermos(=warm)

>θέρω/ thero(=heat)

>θάλλω/thallo(=feed)

Literally means "various-heating”

Definition

(biol) Poikilothermy is in general the capasity of an organism to vary the  internal body temprature according to temprature of external environment. Ectothermy is also thermoregulation but this is generated only by internal means of metabolism.

  The opposite of homoethermy  is homeothermy.

endothermic

Term: endothermic

Origin: Anc Greek

ενδο/endo(=inside, within)

θερμός/thermos(=warm)

>θέρω/ thero(=heat)

>θάλλω/thallo(=feed)

Marcellin Berthelot (1827 –1907)

Literally means” within-heating”

Coined

(chem) The term was coined by French chemist and politician Marcellin Berthelot  (1827 –1907).

Definition

(chem) Endothermic concerns a reaction that absorbs energy. In the opposite, in exothermic process, it is released energy in the form of heat.

androgen

Term: adrogen

Origin: Anc Greek  ανδρογόνος < ανδρός, genitive of word ανήρ/aner(=male)  +  γένος/genos(=generation,  produced by)  -à generating man

Coined :

In the article “Endocrines theory and practice” in  J Chemistry and Assay of male hormones (1957) by R.K Callow and A.S Parkes  is mentioned that :

“the terms androgenic in  the sense of causing the development of male organs and characters and androgen a substance with this property, have been  used by American  writers . They supply very necessary parallels to the terms “oestrogenic” and oestrogen” applied to female sex hormones.”

Definition:

Any of a group of hormones, such as testosterone or androsterone, that stimulates or controls the development and maintenance of the secondary male sex characteristics.

larynx

Term: larynx or Adam's apple

Origin:   Anc Greek λάρυγξ/larynx(=larynx) >

Λάλη/lali(voice) + άγαγον/agαγον(=carry)

Definition:

Larynx is an organ of respiratory tract,  in the neck of human and other animals located between the pharynx and the trachea. Larynx serves three major body functions: talking, swallowing and breathing.

Comments:

Galen (131-201 AD) used to study living pigs and cut their nerve bundles one at the time and eventually he cut a laryngeal nerve (Galen's Nerve) and the pig stopped squealing.

antibiotic

Term: antibiotic

Origin: Anc Greek αντί/anti(=against) + βιοτικός/biotic(=of life)

> βίος/bios(=life) > βία/bia(=haste, force)

Coined : In 1928, while studying influenza, British microbiologist Alexander  Fleming (1881-1955)  noticed that mould had developed accidentally on a set of culture dishes being used to grow the staphylococci germ. The mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. Fleming experimented further and named the active substance penicillin. Fleming was not the first who observed the antibacterial properties of Penicillium species but was the first who proposed that penicillin can used to kill gram positive bacteria from a mixture of microorganisms.. The term "antibiotic" was coined in 1942 by Selman Waksman (1888 –1973) a biochemist and microbiologist in order to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution.

Definition:

A substance produced by one microorganism (fungi or bacteria) that selectively inhibits the growth of others. Nowadays the term is reffered  also to the  hemisynthetic substances with similar properties.

Comments:

Waksman isolated, together with his students and associates, a number of new antibiotics, including actinomycin (1940), clavacin, streptothricin (1942), streptomycin (1943), grisein (1946), neomycin (1948, and others. Two of these, streptomycin and neomycin, have found extensive application in the treatment of numerous infectious diseases of men, animals and plants. They have been covered by patents, that on streptomycin having been recently listed as one of the ten «patents that shaped the world».

More: "Les Prix Nobel". Nobelprize.org. 2 Mar 2011 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/publications/lesprix.html

For more updated biographical information, see: Waksman, Selman Abraham, My Life With Microbes. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1954.

anorexia

Term: anorexia

Origin:  Anc Greek ανορεξία/anorexia(=absence of appetie) >

 prefix that denotes absence αν-/an (=without) + όρεξις/orexis (=appetite, desire) > oρέγειν/oregein(=desire)
Coined:
An English physician William Gull coined the term Anorexia Nervosa in 1868.

Definition:

loss of appetite, especially as a result of disease.

Comments:

This term is correlated or confused with anorexia nervosa an eating disorder, especially among young woman, characterized by an obsessive fear of gaining weight.

coma

Term: coma

Origin:  An Greek κώμα/coma(=deep sleep) >

Κείμαι/keimai (=lie up)

Definition:

More than  6  hours state of unconsciousness whereby a patient cannot react with surrounding environment.

symptom

Term: symptom

Origin: 

Greek σύμπτωμα/symptoma (=a happening) >

συν/syn(together) + πίπτειν/piptein (=to fall) because symptoms happen with a disease.

Coined :

Definition:
A characteristic sign of the existence of a disease or health condition (eg pregnancy). Symptoms are subjective

neuroglia

Term: neuroglia or glial cell or glia

Origin: Medieval  Greek

 gloia, γλοία (glue)

Coined: -

Definition:

The supportive tissue of the nervous system, including  astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microcytes in the central nervous system and the supporting cells of the peripheral nervous system (neurilemma and satellite cells) . Neuroglia provide support, protection and nutrition to the neural tissue and prevents impulses from travelling between adjacent neurons. 

Runon derivatives :

astroglia, microglia, oligodendroglia

comments:

coeliac disease

Term : coeliac (disease)

Origin: Ancient Greek
coelia> kilia(=belly)

Coined: by Aretaeus of Cappadocia (2th cen AD) as kiliakos. Later Samuel Jones Gee (1839 – 3 1911)  an English physician in 1888,  published the first complete modern description of the clinical picture of coeliac disease and he adopted the greek term coelic that Aretaeous used.  

Definition:

(Most known) coeliac disease: An auto-immune disease characterised by impaired  absorption and digestion of nutrients through the small intestine . Symptoms include frequent  diarrhea  and weight loss. People who have coeliac disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. 

Runon derivatives :

comments:

fungus

Word: fungus (pl fungi)

Origin: Latin

fungus (mushroom) <  Greek word  sphongos/σφογγος (=sponge) because of the fungi appearance,

Coined: Horace (65 BC –  8 BC), and Pliny  (23 AD – 79AD),

Definition:

eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Fungi, which lack chlorophyll and vascular tissue, that includes microorganisms such as yeasts  mushrooms, rusts, smuts, puffballs, truffles, morels, molds, and yeasts.

Runon derivatives :

comments:

The use of the word mycology= study of fungi  is derived from the Greek mykes/μύκης (mushroom) and logos/λόγος (discourse), coined in 1836 by  English naturalist Miles J Berkeley's "The English Flora of Sir James Edward Smith, Vol. 5."

hybrid

Word: hybrid

Origin: Ancient Greek from ύβρις/hyvris (=haughtiness, insolence) as every hybrid was considered as an insult against nature

Coined:

Definition

an organism resulting from a cross between genetically unlike individuals. Hybrids between different species are usually sterile like mules.

Runon derivatives :

hybridization, hybridoma

comments:

bio-

Term: bio-

Origin: Anc Greek
βίος/vios(=life) > βία/via(=rush)

Coined: -

Meaning: combining form meaning "life"

Runon derivatives : biology, biophysics, endosymbiosis