acillus is from the
Latin bacillum, "a small
staff or wand," this
being the diminutive
of baculum, "a rod or
scepter." The allusion,
of course, is to the rod-like shape of
certain bacteria. When first introduced in microbiology, the term was
restricted to straight "little rods," in
distinction to vibrio, which are
wavy forms.
bacitracin is an antibiotic substance produced
by the Tracy I strain of Bacillus subtilis, an aerobic, gram-positive, sporulating bacillus isolated in 1943 from the contaminated wound
atthe site of a compound fracture sustained
by a young girl named Margaret Tracy
(Johnson BA, etal. Science. 1945; 102:376).
bacteria is a neo-Latinized version (in the
neuter plural; singular, bacterium) of the
Greek bakterion, "a small rod or staff." In
1853 Ferdinand Cohn (1828-1898), a German
botanist, categorized microorganisms as bacteria (short rods), bacilli (longer rods), and
spirilla (spiral forms),
Bacteriophage (see phage)
bagassosis is a respiratory disorder due to inhalation, by susceptible persons, of the dust
of bagasse (a French word), the husks ofsugar
cane discarded after the sugar has been extracted. Acute asthmatic bronchitis, or even
chronic pulmonary fibrosis, is a hypersensitivity reaction to a fungus (Thermoactinomycessaccharii) thatlurks in the husks. This is
only one of an array ofsimilar occupational
hazards, among which are farmer's lung,
maple bark stripper’s lung, malt worker's
lung, and paprika splitter's lung, to name but
a few.
Baker's cyst is a bulging of encapsulated synovial fluid in the popliteal space. The term
memorializes William Morrant Baker (1839-
1896), a British surgeon. But here is a curious
coincidence. In the 17th century "bakerlegged" was a term for an acquired deformity
ofthe lower limbs said to be an occupational
hazard of the baker's trade.
BAL are the initials of "British anti-lewisite," developed during World War II as an antidote
to "lewisite," a vesicant arsenical war gas
concocted atthe time of World War I (1914-
18) by Winfred Lee Lewis (1878-1943), an
American chemist. The antidote, more properly termed dimercaprol, evolved from intensive efforts by investigators at Oxford
University and was shown to be a potent
chelating agentthat rendered arsenicals nontoxic. This would be of little more than historical interest were it not for the postwar
discovery that dimercaprol was also effective
in counteracting the toxic effect of other
heavy metals, notably mercury.
balance is a term used for a laboratory scale
and comes from the Latin bis, "twice," + lanx
(plural lands), "plate," i.e., a two-plate device
for comparing known and unknown weights.
Scale is derived from the Old Norse skal, "a
bowl," which referred to the container on
which objects were lifted for weighing.
balanitis is derived from the Greek balanos,
"acorn.” The Greek word was early used to
describe various things likened to an acorn,
such as small pegs, suppositories, pessaries,
and the glans penis. The last reference has
persisted in balanitis, an inflammation ofthe
glans penis.
ballottement is a maneuver in physical diagnosis whereby a solid mass immersed in
fluid, such as the liver in an ascitic abdomen,
tends to bounce back when smartly tapped.
The term is French, taken from the Greek
ballein, "to throw," and is used in the sense of
tossing an object back and forth.
balm comes through the French baume as a
contraction ofthe Latin balsamun, the name
of a tree that yielded an aromatic resin that
was made into a healing ointment. The Greek
balsamon means "a fragrant gum." Anything
that soothes or mitigates pain can be used to
excess, and perhaps someone sniffed the resin
for its mildly narcotic effect. Hence the word
balmy when used to mean "silly or eccentric." Canada balsam is a resin obtained
from the balsam fir and is used to mountsections on slides for microscopic examination.
Embalm refers to the infusion of balsam by
the ancient Egyptiansto preserve dead bodies.
29
bandage bedlam
Though the Egyptians didn't know it, the
active ingredient was benzoic acid, and
sodium benzoate is used even now as a preservative. Morticians still embalm, but what
they now infuse is formalin.
bandage originated with the Indo-European
bhendh, "to bind," and this led to the Old
English banda. Through French this became
bandage, meaning “that which binds." A
bandage to the Greeks was desmos and to the
Romans fascia.
barber comes from the Latin barba, "beard." To
the Romans, a barber orshearer was a tonsor.
From this comes "tonsorial parlor," a highfalutin name for a barbershop. The original
barbers also were authorized to use their
knife blades for the purpose of therapeutic
bleeding, and those so skilled were known as
"barber surgeons." Their symbol was a white
staff, such as grasped by the patient to mitigate the ordeal. Around this was draped the
red, blood-stained bandage used to dress the
wound. Atop the staff was a basin in which
blood was collected. This arrangement became the familiar barber pole that still
adorns many a barbershop (at least the ones
not styled as "salons").
barbiturate refers to a derivative of barbituric
acid. The name Barbitusaure was given in
1863 by Adolf von Baeyer (1835-1917), a
German chemist. It has been said that
Baeyer's synthesis of the substance, from a
combination of malonic acid and urea, was
aided by the contribution of urine specimens
from a Munich waitress named Barbara. If
this sounds fanciful, it probably is. Later,
"Veronal" was a name given to the hypnotic
barbital, presumably in honor of the Italian
city of Verona. Did whoever bestowed the
name remember that Verona was the setting
for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the
place where the hapless maiden quaffed her
fatal sleeping potion?
barbotage refers to the technique in spinal
anesthesia wherein a small volume of cerebrospinal fluid is withdrawn by needle from
the subarachnoid space, mixed with an anesthetic agent, then re-injected. Occasionally
"barbotage" is used more generally to describe any aspiration and re-injection or
flushing procedure, as in gastric lavage. The
word is French and comes from barboter, "to
dabble, as a duck in a pond."
barf (see puke)
baro- is a combining form derived from the
Greek barns, "heavy." Barium ore was originally referred to as "heavy earth," and the element was discovered and named in 1808 by
Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). The density
or "heaviness” of barium is attested to by its
widespread use, as barium sulfate, in contrast radiography of the gastrointestinal
tract. A barometer (+ Greek metron, "measure") is an instrument that measures the
"weight" or pressure of atmospheric air.
Hyperbaric therapy entails use of a special
chamber in which patients can be subjected
to higher than normal atmospheric pressures
or concentrations of oxygen, as used, for example, in the treatment of decompression
sickness ("the bends") or carbon monoxide
poisoning. The term bends is an allusion to
the crouching posture assumed by those afflicted with the condition. Bariatrics (+
Greek iatros, "healing") is a branch of
medicine that deals with the study of obesity,
its causes and treatment. A baritone is typically cast as an operatic "heavy."
base in chemistry refers to any substance that
can be acted upon by acid to form a salt.
More specifically, a base is a negatively
charged ion whose donor electrons can bind
covalently with a positively charged, acidic
ion. The negatively charged ion, then, is the
"base" on which the salt is built. The Greek
basis is "a stepping," thus a foundation,
beaker is a cylindrical glass container with an
open top and pouring spout, a familiar piece
of equipment in every laboratory. The name
can be traced to the Greek bikos, "an earthen
wine vessel or jug," which became in Vulgar
Latin bicarium, "a wine cup," and led to the
Old English biker, pronounced as "beaker."
bedlam is a word describing a scene of confusion and uproar. It is a slurred contraction of
Bethlehem, taken from the name of the
Hospital ofSaint Mary of Bethlehem, formerly
an asylum in southeast London forthe incarceration of persons then called lunatics. The
hospital, popularly known as "Bedlam," was
frequented by fashionable visitors in search
of macabre entertainment.
30
belch bifurcate
belch (see eructation)
belladonna is an extract of the leaves and
roots of the plant Atropa belladonna, sometimes called "deadly nightshade." The extract is capable of producing a potent
anticholinergic effect, including dilatation of
the pupils. Belladonna is Italian for "beautiful
lady," and the story is that the drug was
taken by ladies of high fashion to induce a
limpid look that presumably was deemed attractive. Atropine (q.v.), the name given to
a principal alkaloid of belladonna, also has
a feminine connection in its derivation from
Atropos, one ofthe trio of mythological Fates.
belly (see abdomen)
bends (see baro-)
benign is from the Latin adjective benignus,
meaning "kind, affable, friendly, or favorable." This, in turn, links the Latin bene,
"well," + [gjnatus, "to be born." A benign
person, then, is kind and gentle, presumably
consequent to being “well born." A benign
neoplasm came to be thought of as relatively
harmless because it was assumed to be a
counterpart of "well born" tissue. Of course,
a benign tumor is not always of a favorable
disposition, (see malignant)
benzine (see benzoin)
benzoin is a balsamic resin obtained from certain trees ofthe genus Styrax that grow in the
East Indies. It is used as an expectorant and
also as a tincture to make adhesive tape stick
fast. Originally the Arabic term was luban jawi,
“gum or frankincense of java." ("Frankincense," incidentally, is from a combination of
the Old French franc, "superior," + encens,
"incendiary,” as a readily ignitable resin.)
Westerners, when introduced to the term
luban jawi, dropped the lu, perhaps mistaking
it for a mere grammatical article, and the
name was further corrupted by the Venetians
to benzoino. From benzoin was derived benzoic acid, the first of a long series of volatile
chemical compounds. From benzoic acid, and
later from coal tar, was distilled benzene
(C6H6), a solvent of diverse uses. Benzene can
be highly toxic, acutely to the central nervous system and chronically to bone marrow.
Benzene is not to be confused with benzine,
a petroleum distillate comprising various
mixtures of hexane and heptane. Caveat:
Benzene and benzine do not represent alternative spellings.
beriberi is the Singhalese word for "weak," the
duplication being commonly used in Eastern
languages for intensification or emphasis.
The affliction, now recognized as a polyneuropathy, was once endemic in the Far East,
the result of a diet limited to polished rice.
Beri beri might be considered a "disease of
progress." It was relatively unknown until the
invention of a steam-powered mill that
yielded grains of rice bereft of the nutritious
husk. Now we recognize the deficiency to be
mainly that of vitamin B,. (see thiamine)
bezoar is derived from the medieval Arabic
badizhar, which, in turn, comes from the ancient Persian podzahr, the name given to the
hairball extracted from the rectum of a wild
Asiatic mountain goat and said to have been
prized for its magical efficacy as a universal
antidote. Indigestible agglomerations of hair
that accumulate in the digestive tract, usually in demented persons who pluck and
swallow their own hair, are known specifically as trichobezoars, the prefix being the
Greek for "hair." Those concretions composed
of indigestible plant fibers, such as those
from persimmons, are phytobezoars, the
prefix being the Greek for "plant."
biceps is a Latin word meaning "two-headed"
and is derived from bis-, "double," + caput,
"head." Anatomically, the biceps is a muscle
with two "heads" of origin. The biceps
brachii is in the upper arm; the biceps
femoris is in the thigh. "Biceps," despite its
terminal "s,” is singular; there is no such
thing as a "bicep."
bicuspid refers to a tooth with two cusps or a
valve with two leaves. The word comes from
the Latin bis-, "double," + cuspis, "point of a
spear."
bifid is a near borrowing of the Latin bifidus,
"forked, cloven, or split in two," which, in
turn, was derived from bis-, "double," + findere, "to split."
bifurcate is from the Latin adjective bifurcus,
"double pronged," being derived from a combination of bis-, "double," + /urea, "fork." The
term often is applied to vessels or nerves that
divide in their courses. Incidentally, the fork
as an eating tool is a relatively recent utensil
31
bigeminal -blastwhen compared with the spoon and knife. The
Romans used furcae more often to support
vines or as yokes applied to the necks ofslaves,
bigeminal refers to a cardiac rhythm wherein
heartbeats occur in series of two. The word
comes from the Latin bis-, "double," + geminare, "to repeat." Also, in Latin a geminus is
a twin and, in the plural, gemini are twins
(see trigeminus). The Gemini are among
the signs of the zodiac (from the Greek zodiakos, "of or pertaining to animals").
Formerly, it was common to swear by the
Gemini, hence the old expletive "By jiminy!"
(though it could also be a euphemism for
Jesu Domini, "Lord Jesus"),
bile comes from the Latin bilis, which means
"gall or bile" and also "wrath or anger." To
the Romans, bilis accounted for two ofthe four
"humors” of the body: yellow bile, black bile,
blood, and phlegm. Bilis is said to have been
derived from a combination of bis-, "double,"
- lis, "contention," the idea presumably being
that there are two forms of bile that are responsible for two types of temperament. The
reason for this may have been the observation ofthin, yellow bile excreted directly from
the liver, while a more viscid, darker bile was
found to be stored in the gallbladder. This had
its later counterpart in the "A" and "B" bile
described by B.B. Vincent Lyon (1880-1953), a
Philadelphia gastroenterologist, who analyzed
bile, obtained by duodenal intubation, for evidence of biliary tract disease. Lyon's "A" bile
was thin and yellow; "B" bile, obtained after
the gallbladder had been stimulated to contract, appeared darker and more viscid. The
purpose was to search extracted bile microscopically for evidence of cholesterol crystals
or calcium bilirubinate pigment as a sign of
actual or potentialstone formation. Today this
would be regarded as a mark of "lithogenic
bile," a potential source of gallstones,
bilirubin is derived from the Latin bili-, "bile,"
- ruber, "red." The purpose of the term, apparently, was to distinguish bilirubin from
what were thoughtto be other forms, namely,
biliflavin (Latin flavus, "yellow") and biliverdin (French verd, from the Latin viridis,
“green"). When the chemistry of bile was
later adduced, there was no need for two
words to describe the principal pigment of
bile, which, although yellow, was still called
bilirubin. "Biliflavin” was abandoned. "Biliverdin" remained as the designation of dehydrobilirubin or oxidized bilirubin,
biology is from the Greek bios, "life," + logos,
"word, reason, or study." The word is ofsurprisingly recent origin. Such a combined term
was not used by the Greeks or, apparently, by
anyone else until Ludolf Christian Treviranus
(1779-1865), a professor of botany at Bonn,
Germany, published his Biology, the Philosophy
ofLiving Nature in 1802. From time immemorial, sages devoted a great deal ofstudy to life
and living things, but to them this was "natural philosophy."
biopsy is derived from the Greek bios, "life," +
opsis, "vision," and is thus, literally, the
"viewing of live matter,” as in the examination of a tissue specimen obtained from a
living organism. This is in distinction to
necropsy (q.v.), a "viewing of the dead." In
common parlance, "biopsy" is used to refer
both to the procedure and to the specimen
thus obtained and examined. Only the
former is correct, but the latter use probably
will gain legitimacy by currency,
birth is a near borrowing ofthe Old Norse byrth
derived from the Germanic stem -ber, -bur, "to
bear." The terminal "-th" designates a process. As "death" is the process of leaving this
world, so "birth" is the process of entering it.
bismuth in German is Wismuth, which appears
to relate to Wiese, "meadow," combined with
Mut, "spirit." The allusion is to the occurrence
of bismuth ore in mines as an excrescence or
"flowering." There is a contrived New Latin
term bisemutum, butthis is a 16th-century attempt at scholarly transliteration of the
German.
black lung (see anthracosis)
Black Plague (see plague)
bladder is said to have originated with the postulated Indo-European root bhel, "blade,
bloom, orsprout." This led to the Old English
blaedre, "blister," meaning a watery swelling
that sprouts from the skin. Thus, blister, bleb,
and bladder seem to have a common source,
-blast- as a combining form also seems to have
originated with the postulated Indo-European
root bhel, "blade, bloom, or sprout." This led
to the Greek blastos, "germ or offspring." In
32
bleno- brachyembryology, the blastoderm is the initial
mass of cells produced by cleavage of a fertilized ovum. When used as a suffix, "-blast"
refers to a primitive cell type from which
emerge more highly differentiated cells, as in
myeloblast. A blastoma is a tumor resulting
from the "sprouting" of primitive cells.
bleno- is a combining form taken from the
Greek blenna, "mucus." Blenorrhagic (+
Greek rhegnymai, "to break forth") refers to
an excessive discharge of mucus.
blephar- is a combining form from the Greek
blepharon, "eyelid." Thus, blepharitis is an
inflammation of the eyelid, and blepharoplasty is a repair or refashioning ofthe eyelid.
blister is a modification of the Old French
blostre, "a leprous nodule." Later, the term
was restricted to fluid-filled excrescences of
skin or othersurfaces.
blood is still another word said to have originated with the postulated Indo-European
root bhel, "bloom or sprout," though the connection is less than certain. It is conceivable
that ancient people looked upon the effusion
from incised skin as a sort of "blooming." The
Old English word was blod, pronounced to
rhyme with "food." In the early 16th century
the vowel sound was shortened to rhyme with
"good," and only later did the spelling
change to "blood," the pronunciation coming
to rhyme with "flood." A person presumed to
be of aristocratic pedigree is sometimes called
a “blue blood," despite the factthat his actual
blood is as red as anyone else's. Aristocratic
Castilians prided themselves on their lineage,
in proof of which they pointed to the veins of
their arms and hands, which, under fair and
fine skin, appeared blue. This was in contrast
to the venous pattern apparent in persons of
supposedly lesser rank whose antecedents
had mated with dark-skinned Moors. The
Spanish sangre azul was, then, taken as evidence of noble birth.
boil as a term for a focal suppurative swelling
in the skin is said to have originated with the
Gothic uf-bauljan, "to blow up." The Old
English word was byl, and in some archaic dialects "boil" is still pronounced as "bile."
bone is a strictly Germanic word, having no
cognates in other Indo-European languages.
The German bein and Swedish ben both mean
"leg" as well as "bone.” The Latin for bone is
os, ossis, from which comes the prefix "osteo-."
bone break fever (see dengue)
borborygmus is an almost direct borrowing of
the word that meant to the Greeks what it
means to us: "gut rumbling or growling
bowels." The inference thatit is a classic example of onomatopoeia, as an echoic word,
is inescapable,
bosom (see breast)
botulism comes from the Latin botulus, "sausage." The term refers to an often lethal toxic
paralysis first observed in 19th-century
Germany and immediately attributed to the
eating of contaminated sausage. The poisonous substance was first called "botuline,"
that is, a derivative of sausage. Not until the
end of the century was a bacterial source
identified and named Bacillus botulinus.
Botox is Allergan's trademark name for botulinum toxin type A, recently introduced in
cosmetic surgery as an agent to temporarily
eliminate skin wrinkles; it has been also used
for temporary relief of esophageal achalasia,
bougie is a direct borrowing ofthe French word
for "taper or candle" and refers in surgery to
an instrument used to dilate orifices. The idea
is not that candles were used as dilators
(though this is possible) but rather that dilators were shaped like candles, being smaller
atthe tip than atthe base. Our adjective “tapered" conveys this sense. The French bougie
was taken from Bejaia, the name of an
Algerian port town, long the center of the
wax trade and a source of quality candles,
bowel originated with the Latin botulus,
"sausage," which in Vulgar Latin became
botellus. This was shortened in French to boel
and became bouele in Middle English. The external appearance of the intestine, indeed,
suggests that of a sausage. The fact that
sausages were originally encased in segments
of animal bowel, usually that of sheep, is
merely incidental. The Romans had a perfectly proper name for the bowels, intestina.
bowleg (see valgus)
brachial as an indicator of reference to the
upper extremities is taken from the Latin
brachium, "arm."
brachy- is a combining form taken from the
Greek brachys, "short." Itis notto be confused
33
brachydactylia bruit
with brachial as a reference to the arm
(from the Latin brachium, "arm") or with
brady- (q.v.).
brachydactylia (brachy- + Greek daktylos,
"finger") is an abnormal stubbiness of the
fingers and toes.
brachygnathia (brachy- + Greek gnathos,
"jaw") is evident as a pronounced recession
ofthe mandible.
brachytherapy (brachy- + Greek therapeia,
"treatment") is the application ofionizing radiation from a source placed on or near the
surface of the body. An example is radiation
applied a short distance from the chest wall
and targeted to a coronary artery for the purpose of preventing or retarding restenosis following angioplasty or stenting,
brady- is a combining form taken from the
Greek bradys, "slow."
bradycardia is a slower than normal rate of
heartbeat (brady- + Greek kardia, "heart"),
bradykinin was discovered as a substance resulting from the action of snake venom on
plasma globulin. When injected into experimental animals, the substance caused lowering of blood pressure and slowly developing
contraction of the gut. Because of this slow
response by the gut, Rocha de Silva and his
associates (Am / Physiol. 1949;156:261)
named the substance, now known to be a
polypeptide, by linking brady- + Greek kinein,
"to move."
bradyphrenia is a condition marked by excessive fatiguability of mental and psychomotor
action (brady- + Greek phren, "mind"), such
as seen in cases of epidemic encephalitis,
brain is said to have its origin in the Old
Teutonic root bragno[m], leading to the Old
English braeg[e]n. While this may have a tenuous relation to the Greek bregma, "the top of
the head," it should come as no surprise that
there is no classical term, handed down
through the ages, for the brain as an organ.
The ancients had only a vague and uncertain
concept of the brain’s function. Oddly, they
tended to place the seat of emotions in more
mundane structures, such as the kidneys,
spleen, and liver,
brandy face (see rosacea)
breast is a distant relative of the Middle High
German bruistem, which meant “to swell up.”
Similarly, bosom is attributed to the Sanskrit
bhasman, "blowing, as a bellows." Buxom,
on the other hand, once spelled “bughsom,"
descended from the Old English bugan, which
meant "to bow or bend." Hence, in the old
days, a "buxom bride" was much admired as
one who gave promise of being pliant and
obedient. Later, the meaning changed to approach that of "blithe" and, still later, to
"full of health and vigor." To have arrived at
its present meaning, "buxom" must have
suggested to someone that generously proportioned female breasts connote vim and
vitality.
bregma is the point on the surface of the skull
at the junction of the sagittal and coronal
suture lines. The term is Greek for "the top of
the head."
brevis is Latin for "short" and used in anatomy
mainly to distinguish short and long (longus)
paired muscles.
bronchiectasis (see ectasia)
bronchus is a dissimulated borrowing of the
Greek bro[n]gchos, by which the ancient
Greeks referred to conduits of the lung. This
may, in turn, have been derived from the
Greek brechein, "to be moistened," in the sense
thatthe bronchial lining is always moist.
brucellosis is a disease named after Sir David
Bruce (1855-1931), an English army surgeon
who identified the cause of undulant, or
Malta, fever in 1887. Bruce found the infecting bacteria, Bacillus melitensis (the latter
term being Latin for "Maltese"), in the spleens
of British soldiers who died of undulant fever
on the Mediterranean island of Malta. The
stricken soldiers had contracted the disease
by drinking contaminated goat's milk. The
counterpart among domestic animals is
Bang's disease, named for Bernard L. F. Bang,
a Danish veterinarian.
bruise comes from the Old French bruiser, "to
break, smash, or shatter." When we refer to a
hefty hulk of a fellow capable of "taking the
place apart" as a "bruiser," we are using the
term in the original sense.
bruit comes through the French from the Latin
brugitus, "a rumbling." This, in turn, may be
related to the Latin rugire, "to roar." The Oxford
English Dictionary suggests thatthe initial "b"
may have been added for an echoic effect.
34
bruxism burking
bruxism is a classical term for gnashing the
teeth and is derived from the Greek brychein,
"to grind or gnash the opposing rows of
molar teeth." Gnash is of Old Norse descent and probably began as an imitative
sound. Habitual bruxism or gnashing of the
teeth can cause dental damage and may
contribute to the temperomandibular joint
syndrome.
bubo comes from the Greek boubon, which was
variously used to refer to the groin or to
swelling in the groin. An association between
pestilential fever and glandular swelling in
the groin was recognized as early as the 1st
century A.D. Reaching an epidemic scale and
more than decimating the population of
Europe in the Middle Ages, the disease
became known as the bubonic plague. The
causative organism was known as Pasteurella
pestis until 1970; since then it has been classified as Yersinia pestis, commemorating its
discovery in 1894 by Alexander Yersin (1863-
1943), a Swiss bacteriologist then working in
Hong Kong, (see plague)
buccal refers to the inside of the cheek and is
said to have originated in the Hebrew bukkah,
"empty, hollow." The Latin bucca means
"cheek" and also "a loudmouthed person."
We still use "cheek" to describe a person who
exhibits undue arrogance. The homonym
"buckle" first meant the fastening of a
helmet's chin strap lying along the cheek.
The Latin buccina (from the Greek bukane)
means "trumpet." The buccinator muscle
gives tonus to the wall of the cheek and is essential to blowing a horn. However, a buccaneer, while he may be a bold fellow with
"cheek," takes his name from the French boucanier, originally "one who grills meat on a
frame," a practice first observed among natives of the West Indies. The popular meaning ofthe French boucan is "rowdy."
buffer is a term for any substance in solution
that serves to maintain a given pH when an
acid or alkali is introduced. It is said to have
originated, indirectly, around the turn of the
century, from the writings of Soreh P.L.
Sorenson (1869-1939), a Danish chemist.
Actually, Sorenson wrote in French and used
the word tampon, which can refer to either a
plug or a pad. This was translated through
the German into English as "buffer," in the
sense of "warding off a blow."
bulimia means "excessive or exaggerated appetite." The word comes from the Greek bous,
"ox," + limos, "hunger." The Greeks often
used an allusion to the ox to describe whatever was huge or monstrous. In this same
manner we allude to the horse in our use of
"horseradish" or "horselaugh." At the risk of
mixing our animals, we might say that bulimia leads to "eating like a horse."
bulla in Latin was "a bubble, stud, or knob,"
hence any rounded protrusion, particularly
that which was hollow or cystic. The ethmoid bulla is a rounded protrusion of the
ethmoid bone into the lateral wall of the
nasal cavity, enclosing an air cell or sinus.
Also, blisters on the skin or blebs on the
pleura are called bullae,
bunghole is a vulgar term for the anus. The
same word more properly refers to the small
opening in the cover through which a cask or
barrel is filled or emptied. The "bung" was
the stopper by which the hole was plugged,
bunion comes from the Italian bugnone, "a
lump." This, in turn, probably came from the
Greek bounos, "hill or mound," which may be
of Cyreniac origin, (see hallux; also valgus)
burking is an eponymic addition to the English
language, seldom used today but nevertheless of interest to medical students. As the
study of human anatomy became widespread and essential to the instruction of doctors-to-be, cadavers became increasingly
difficult to procure. With no legal provision
for subjects suitable for dissection, the practice of body snatching and grave robbing
flourished. Two proficient procurers in Edinburgh were named Burke and Hare. When
corpses were in short supply, Burke undertook
to ignore the distinction between the quick
and the dead by murdering those poor persons assayed to be worth more dead than
alive. Robert Knox, then professor of anatomy at Edinburgh, made insufficient inquiry
into the provenance of specimens delivered
to him and became an innocent victim of
these nefarious acts which, when discovered,
ended the careers of Burke, Hare, and Knox.
Meanwhile, the practice had become a cause
for concern throughout Britain and came to
35
burp buxom
be called "burking." The wicked business
ended when the procurement of legitimately
dead bodies for dissection was legalized by
Warburton's Anatomy Act of 1832.
burp (see eructation)
bursa is a direct borrowing of the Medieval
Latin word for "bag or purse." This was taken
from the Greek bursa, "a hide or wineskin."
In medical parlance, a bursa is a sack-like
structure containing a viscid fluid that serves
as a shock absorber and lubricant for bony
joints. The English word bursar is similarly
derived and designates "the one who holds
the purse."
buttock refers to one of the two gluteal prominences of man or animals and is a diminutive of "butt," meaning the thick stump or
end of anything. In Old English, -ock was a
diminutive suffix, as in "bullock," meaning a
small bull, or "hillock," meaning a small hill,
butyric is from the Greek bouturos, "butter,"
which, in turn, is a combination of bous,
"ox," + tyros, "cheese." It happens that cheese
was known before butter, and the Romans
considered butter useful as a salve or source
of oil for lamps but not as a food. Butyric acid
was originally discovered in rancid butter,
buxom (see breast)