malady is an Anglicization of the French maladie, "an illness," in turn derived from the
Latin adverb male, "badly." The Latin word is
pronounced "mah-ley" and has nothing to
do with “male," in the sense ofthe masculine
gender. This provides an opportunity to give
an example of folk etymology. The fanciful
story is told that the word "marmalade" goes
back to the frequent illnesses suffered by
Mary, the unhappy and unfortunate queen
of Scotland. When Mary complained, the cry
of her French-speaking courtiers would ring
through the castle, "Marie est malade!"
("Mary is sick!"). The remedy was to be found
in a nice dish of preserved fruit, and this took
its name as an antidote for Mary's malade.
This story, clever as it might be, has not a
soupgon of truth in it. "Marmalade" comes
from the Portuguese marmalada, "a quince
jam," and goes back to the Latin melimelum,
"a kind of apple," and to the Greek melimelon,
a combination of me/-, "honey or a sweet," +
melon, "a fruit.”
malaise is a French word descended from the
Old French mal-, “bad or ill,” + aise, "ease";
hence, "ill at ease." In medicine, "malaise"
can describe any vague feeling of bodily or
mental discomfort.
malar comes from the Latin mala, "the cheekbone." To the Romans, this also meant the
facial cheek itself, and it has been suggested
that the term is related to the Latin malum,
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malaria mania
"an apple,” presumably because of a fancied
resemblance of a rosy, rounded cheek to a
ripe apple.
malaria comes from the Italian mala aria ("bad
air”). The belief was that the disease then
called "intermittent fever" was caused by
mala aria or noxious air emanating from
marshlands. The connection with swamps
was correct, but mosquitoes and not vapors
carry the cause of malaria. If one wishes to
avoid mala aria, one might consider moving
to Buenos Aires, where the air is said to be
good. In his short story "Daisy Miller" (1878)
Henry James called malaria "the villainous
miasma."
male is a borrowing of the French male, a step
away from the Old French masle, which came
from the Latin adjective masculus, “manly."
Female (q.v.), although it looks as if it might
be related to "male" because of its spelling, is
not; its origin is quite different. The conventional symbol for male (d) represents the
shield and spear of Mars, the Roman god of
war; the symbol for female (§) represents a
hand mirror, significant of Venus, the Roman
goddess of beauty.
malignant comes from the Latin adjective malignus, "spiteful, mean, stingy, or malicious,"
this being derived from a combination of
mal-, "bad," + gnatussum, "to be born." Thus,
"malignant" literally means "born to be
bad," and this comes very close to the sense
ofthe word as it is used in pathology. A malignant neoplasm is one that is genetically
predetermined to cause trouble. In English
there are, among others, two pairs of nearly
equivalent words: "benign/benignant" and
"malign/malignant." Curiously, in medicine
(and more particularly in pathology) we
have chosen to use the shorter of the former
pair and the longer of the latter pair to contrast the behavior of certain diseases, especially neoplasia. We speak or write of
"benign" (rather than “benignant") tumors
in contrast to "malignant" (rather than
"malign”) tumors. The choice is little more
than a matter of custom, (see benign)
malingerer denotes one who feigns illness,
often as a ruse to obtain an advantage or to
avoid an obligation. The word comes from
the French adjective malingre, "sickly or
loathesome," and combines mal-, "bad,” +
the Old French haingre, "thin, emaciated."
Presumably, "to malinger" came to its present meaning from the practice of soldiers
who excoriated themselves, particularly by
gouging ulcers on their legs, and thus appeared to have an incapacitating affliction.
In modern soldiery, the self-inflicted "shot in
the foot" is a prime example of malingering.
In my half-century of experience, malingering by patients, i.e., deliberately complaining
of nonexistent symptoms, is rare.
malleus is the Latin word for "hammer or
mallet." The diminutive form, malleolus,
means "a little hammer." Inexplicably, in
anatomy, the malleus, one of the tiny
middle-ear ossicles that is shaped like a
hammer, is considerably smaller than the
malleolus, a bony prominence on either
side ofthe ankle which seemed to someone to
look like the protruding head of a hammer.
MALT is an acronym applied to a specific type
of lymphoma. The initials stand for MucosaAssociated Lymphoid Tissue.
maltose (see glucose)
mammary is an adjective derived from mamma,
which is both the Latin and Greek word for
the breast, particularly that of a woman. The
word is imitative of the "ma-ma" sound uttered by a mewling infant seeking the nourishing breast. Every mother marvels when
she hears that sound. "The baby has learned
my name!" Little does she know that her
name came from the sound and notthe other
way around. Mammals are vertebrate animals that suckle their young. Mammillation, a word derived from the diminutive of
mamma, refers to a small excrescence that
bears a fancied resemblance to a little breast.
mandible is a transliteration of the Latin
mandibula, "the lower jaw." The word comes
from the Latin verb mandere, "to chew"; the
suffix -bula indicates "the means of." Ancient
anatomists used maxilla for both the upper
and lower jaws, and only much later did the
"inferior maxilla" become the "mandible."
mania is the Greek word for “madness," being
related to the verb mainmai, "to rage, to be furious, to rave in anger." A manic disorder
is one characterized by an abnormally expanded emotional state, excessive elation,
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manifest masochism
and heightened verbal and motor activity.
The mythical Furies, demons of vengeance,
were called Maniai; they drove men mad.
manifest means clearly evident, and a manifestation of disease is a readily apparent
feature. "Manifest" comes from the Latin
manifestos, a combination of manus, "hand,"
- festus, "struck." Anything that strikes the
hand or is struck by the hand is clearly evident. A palpable tumor is certainly manifest.
mannitol is a nutrient alcohol, C6H8 (OH)6,
also used as a diuretic, that takes its name
from manna, the Aramaic term for a vegetable exudate. The biblical manna (Exodus
16:13-36) was the sustenance miraculously
granted the Israelites to allay their ordeal in
the flight from Egypt.
manometer is a word in which the "o" reveals
the origin of the term. If the second vowel
were "i" or "u," the first part would have to
come from the Latin manus, "hand," butthis
is notthe case. The "mono-" of "manometer"
is taken from the Greek manos, "scanty or
sparse." The second component of the word,
"-meter," comes from the Greek metron, "a
measure." The first manometer called by that
name was a device used early in the 18th century to record the decreasing pressure of rarefied or "scanty" airin a chamber from which
the air had been extracted. Laterthe term was
applied to any instrument capable ofmeasuring the pressure or tension of gases or liquids.
manu- is a combining form, usually a prefix,
that denotes relation to the hand. It is derived
from the Latin manus, "the hand."
manual as an adjective describes what can be
done with the hands, and as a noun means a
set of instructions (also called a handbook)
telling whatto do with the hands in performing a given task. These terms have nothing to
do with the size ofsuch a book, in the sense
of being easily held in the hand. This explains why a so-called handbook (and particularly the German Handbuch) can, in some
cases, be a ponderous volume. More manageable is a vade mecum, a pocketable
source of reference. The phrase is Latin for
"go with me" and was originally applied to a
small prayer book.
manubrium is another, anatomically proper,
name for the breastbone, so called because
the shape of the bone resembles the handle
of a sword (manu- + Latin hibrium, from
habere, "to hold").
marasmus is derived from the Greek marainein,
"to quench, to extinguish" and also "to waste
away, to languish." In formertimes, the term
was used to describe the pitiable state of infants who became emaciated from no known
cause. Insofar as causes are now increasingly
well defined and remedies are more available
than before, "marasmus" is seldom heard
nowadays. However, the adjectival form
marantic is occasionally used.
marrow means the pith, the core, or the central substance of anything. The Latin equivalent, medulla, is used to refer to the pith of
the kidney and brain, while "marrow" is
used to refer to the pith of hollow bones.
"Marrow" can be traced to the Old English
mearh and the Sanskrit majjan, both ofwhich
referred alike to the marrow of bones or the
pith of trees. Spinal marrow is an archaic
term for the spinal cord, which was once believed, incorrectly, to be the marrow of the
vertebrae.
marsupial comes from the Greek marsippos, "a
bag or pouch." Formerly, the Latin marsupium was applied to various anatomic
pouches, such as the peritoneal cavity and
the scrotum. In surgery, marsupialization
refers to the operation whereby an external
opening is provided for drainage of an internal cyst. An example would be the suturing
of an opening in a pancreatic cyst to a
stoma in the anterior abdominal wall, thus
forming a sort of draining pouch. Such an
operation is not currently favored; internal
drainage by gastric or enteric anastomosis is
preferred.
masochism is a perversion wherein selfinduced pain or humiliation gives a sensation of pleasure. The term is taken from the
name of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-
1895), an Austrian writer who made a sufferer of this sad perversion the protagonist of
one of his novels. Masochism is to be distinguished from sadism, a perverted penchant
for inflicting pain on another person, usually
in a sexual context. This term is taken from
the name of a French writer, Comte Donatien
Alphonse Francois de Sade (1740-1814). He
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massage materia medica
preferred to be addressed as the Marquis de
Sade, the name by which he was known
before succeeding to his father’s title in 1767.
During service with the army, he acquired a
reputation for vicious practices. His literary
works were marked by unrelieved obscenity.
Because of his scandalous behavior, he was
confined for most of the last 30 years of his
life to various institutions, including the
Bastille and a lunatic asylum, as a mentally
deranged prisoner.
massage comes from the Greek massein, "to
work with the hands, as in kneading dough,"
and probably is related to the Greek maza,
"barley bread," and perhaps to the Hebrew
massah, “unleavened bread." Some patients
given to colloquial speech refer to palpation,
as of the abdomen, as "mashing." This is not
traceable to the Greek but rather to the
Middle English meshen, the crushing of cereal
grains in water to provide a "mash" as a food
for animals or a substrate for fermentation.
masseter is the name of the jaw muscle that
brings the lower teeth of the mandible into
contact with the upper teeth of the maxilla.
It is so called from the Greek maseter, "the
chewer." The redundant "s" in the English
term may have been a copyist's error.
mast cell was so named by Paul Ehrlich (1854-
1915), the renowned German immunologist
and bacteriologist, who first used the term
Mastzelle in 1879. The German masten, "to
fatten," is related to mast, an Old English
word for food, especially as fodder for animals. This, in turn, can be traced to the
Sanskrit mada(s), "fat" (which, by another
track gives us "meat"). Ehrlich was impressed
by the densely packed basophilic granules he
observed in the cytoplasm of what he called
die Mastzelle, at first mistaking the granules
for particles ingested by phagocytosis. To
him, the cell looked "well fed."
masticate comes from the Greek mastazein, "to
chew or to gnash the teeth,” and from this
came mastiche as the name for the resinous
gum of an evergreen shrub. Yes, even the ancients had "chewing gum." Though the
proper Latin word for chewing is mandere, the
Romans used masticare specifically for the
chewing of gum. The Greek mastiche also accounts for mastic, the term for a gummy
substance used as a filler in masonry and as
a styptic in dentistry.
mastitis is an inflammation of the breast. The
first portion ofthe term comes from the Greek
mastos, "the breast of a woman." An earlier
Greek form was mazos, from which is derived
"amazon," meaning literally "without a
breast." Herodotus, the Greek historian, told
of a mythical race of female warriors who
lived in Scythia. To avoid impediment in
drawing their bows, these formidable women
were said to have deliberately cut off their
right breasts. Hence, they came to be known
as "Amazons." A less fanciful explanation of
"amazon" is postulated in the Old Iranian
ho-maz-on, "powerful warrior." It seems that
early Spanish explorers, fond of myth, were
intrigued by the notion that such women
warriors abounded in the New World. Despite
the fact that the immense South American
river had already been named by its original
discoverer the Rio Santa Maria de la Mar
Dulce, another Spanish adventurer known as
Orellano fancied that he was engaged in
battle by warrior women while descending
that river, and so he rechristened it "Amazonas." Incidentally, a similar illusion that
the west coast of North America was inhabited by a band of belligerent women under
the rule of a Queen Califia is said to have led
to the naming ofwhat is now our most populous state.
mastoid refers to the smooth, rounded eminence
of the temporal bone behind the ear, fancied
to resemble a female breast. Its name was
taken from the Greek mastos, "breast," + eidos,
"like." At one time this structure was known
by the Latin term processus mammiformis.
materia medica is a now archaic term meaning, literally, "the stuff of medicine," and
more particularly the nature and use of
drugs, now called "pharmacology." The Latin
materia is used in the sense of “the stuff of
which anything is composed." If materia
sounds like the Latin mater; "mother," the resemblance is more than coincidental. In
bygone times there were buttwo departments
in the medical curriculum, that of "physic”
wherein one learned of the natural course of
disease, and that of "materia medica"
wherein one learned how to change it.
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matrix medulla
matrix is the Latin term for any female animal
keptspecifically for breeding and is related to
the Latin mater and the Greek meter, both
meaning "mother" and used in reference to
the uterus as "the mother of the fetus." From
this evolved a sense of matrix as a mold or
enclosing mass in which anything is formed
or shaped. The bony matrix is the groundwork in which bone is formed. The Latin
matrix also was a public roll on which one's
parentage was registered. Later, the diminutive matricula came to be a brief description
ofthe members of a university. Those so listed
could be said to have "matriculated."
maxilla is the Latin word for "jawbone." It
sounds like a diminutive, and it may be, but
of what no one is sure. It relates to the Greek
mastakos, "that with which one chews." The
ancients used maxilla for both the upper and
lower jaw. Later, the lower jaw became
known as the "mandible," and "maxilla"
was restricted to the upper jaw.
measles as the name for the familiar childhood
disease is always used in the plural. The
reason is that a child so afflicted is covered by
many little red spots. The name originated
with the Old High German masa, "a spot."
This was taken into Middle English as the
diminutive plural maselen, "many little
spots." There was another wholly unconnected Middle English word mesel, referring to
a wretch and, later, to a leper. This came from
the Latin miser, "wretched." There should be
no confusion between maselen and mesel.
meatus is the Latin word for "motion or movement," but it also means "a channel" and is
related to the verb meare, "to go or to pass."
"Meatus" is used in the sense of a channel
when referring to the external auditory
meatus, the passage leading into the ear.
meconium is almost a direct borrowing of the
Greek mekonion, the dark, viscid juice obtained by pressing the poppy plant. The
Greek name for poppy is mekon. Because the
bowel discharge from newborn infants was
thoughtto resemble poppy juice, it was given
the same name.
median comes from the Latin medius, “the
middle." The median nerve extends along
the middle of the forearm to the hand. In
statistics, the median is the number in the
exact middle of a list of numbers representing values arranged in ascending or descending order. In a series of markedly unbalanced
numerical data, the median can be a better
indicator of the mid-point than would be the
mean or average.
mediastinum sounds like a near borrowing of
the Latin mediastinus, but to the Romans a
mediastinus was a servant or a drudge. In
anatomy, the mediastinum is a partition between bilateral pleural cavities. Despite the
apparent disparity in usage ofthe term, there
is, in a way, a connection. The word is derived from a combination ofthe Latin medius,
"middle," + stare, "to stand." The anatomic
mediastinum can be said to "stand in the
middle” of the thorax, while the servant
“stands in the middle" when he acts as an intermediary for his master.
medicine is taken almost directly from the Latin
medicina, which, to the Romans, meant almost
the same as "medicine" means to us. This
word, in turn, is related to mederi, "to heal."
Both in ancient times and now, the same
word—medicina or "medicine"—serves for
both to the science of healing and to the
means of healing, i.e., what we also call
"drugs." The Indo-European root med-, metrefers to measurement or consideration (hence
"meditation"). In this sense, a physician
takes the measure of a disease, then measures
out the appropriate treatment. Although no
scholarly authority makes the connection,
one is tempted to think of the "medi-" in
"medicine" as being related to the Latin
medius, "middle," in the sense of "coming between," as in "mediator" and "medium."
Surely the practitioner ofmedicine tries to intervene in a helpful way between the patient
and his or her affliction. Early pale-faced
commentators on American-Indian culture
conferred on native shamans the title of
"medicine man" and interpreted the native
concept of spiritual force as "medicine"—
both "good medicine" and "bad medicine."
medulla is the Latin word for "the marrow," in
the sense of the core or central substance of
anything, and is related to the Latin medius,
"middle." Thus, the adrenal medulla is the
"core” ofthe adrenal gland. Andreas Vesalius
(1514-1564), the renowned Flemish anatomist
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mega menstruation
who taught at Padua, also used the Latin
medulla as a name for the spinal cord, taking
his cue from the Greeks, who called it myelos
rachites, “the marrow of the spine," presumably because the spinal cord occupies a channel within the spinal column. In the 18th
century, the term medulla oblongata (the
latter word meaning "rather long") was limited in reference to that part ofthe brainstem
extending from the pons to the spinal cord
proper.
mega- is a combining form, used either as a
prefix or incorporated in a suffix, derived from
the Greek megas, "great or big." In Latin this
became magnus. Thus, megacardia refers to
an enlarged heart, hepatomegaly refers to
an enlarged liver, and a megacyte is an abnormally large blood or tissue cell. (For
megakaryocyte, see thrombocyte.) Today,
in casual conversation one occasionally
hears "mega” used as a separate adjective, as
in “mega doses” (exceedingly large doses of
any medication) or "mega workup" (an exceedingly extensive diagnostic investigation).
meibomian glands (see hordeolum)
meiosis (Greek "diminutive") is a special type
of cell division pertaining to the maturation
of gametes or haploid reproductive cells.
When the male and female gametes join, the
newly formed nucleus receives half its complement of chromosomes from each of the
parent cells. The resulting somatic cells ofthe
offspring are thus normally diploid. A second
and unrelated meaning ofthe word is rhetorical understatement, especially with an aim
at emphasis. "Meiosis" is not to be confused
with "miosis."
melan- is a combining form derived from the
Greek melas, "black."
melancholy is a gloomy, depressed emotional
state which, according to humoral pathology,
was thought to result from an excess of
"black bile" (melan- + Greek chole, "bile").
melanin is the dark pigment of the skin, the
hair, the choroid coat ofthe eye, and the substantia nigra ("black substance") of the
brain.
melanuria is the passage of dark urine (melan-
- Greek ouron, "urine") that can be produced
by a variety of substances, including blood,
melanin, and homogentisic acid.
melena describes feces rendered tarry, in consistency as well as color, by its content of blood
that has become black as it traverses the gut
after internal bleeding. The term is taken
from the Greek verb melainein, "to darken or
grow black." (see hematochezia)
melitensis (see brucellosis)
mellitus (see diabetes)
membrane comes from the Latin membrana, "a
skin or parchment." This, in turn, has been
thought to relate to the Latin membrum, "a
member," in the sense of a part of the whole,
as a limb is a "member" of the body. It was
the membrana that covered and delineated a
membrum. Later, "membrane" was applied to
any skin-like covering orsupporting tissue.
meninges is the plural of the Greek meninx, "a
membrane." Early writers used this term for
membranes found anywhere in the body.
The term is now restricted to mean the three
membranes that envelop the brain and
spinal cord.
meniscus is a near borrowing of the Greek
meniskos, "crescent-shaped." The root word,
obviously, is the Greek mene, "moon." The
capillary effect on fluid in a tube, such as a
pipette, produces a concave or convex shape
at the top of the fluid column; this is known
as a "meniscus." An articulating cartilage at
the end of a long bone (e.g., atthe proximal
end of the tibia at the knee joint) is typically
crescent-shaped and, as such, is also called a
"meniscus."
menstruation and the adjective menstrual
reflect the early observation that a woman’s
cyclic Vaginal Bleeding nearly coincides with
the period of lunar phases. The prefix menis taken from the Greek men, "a month,"
and mene, "the moon." The cyclic changes
observed in the moon provided one of the
earliest measures of time, about 29V2 days.
Accordingly, a month is really a "moonth."
In Latin, a month is mensis (plural menses),
and menstruus means "monthly." Colloquially,
some women still refer to their "monthlies."
Because these usually occur predictably, they
are often called "periods.” Menorrhagia (+
Greek rhegnyamai, "to burst forth") is excessive Vaginal Bleeding that occurs at regular
monthly intervals. Metrorrhagia is uterine
bleeding, usually prolonged and occurring at
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menstruum metairregular intervals; here the prefix "metro-" is
taken from the Greek metra, "the uterus."
Menopause (+ Greek pausis, "cessation")
signals the end of a woman's menstruation
and, hence, her fertility. Amenorrhea is an
absence of menstrual flow.
menstruum is a Medieval Latin word once
used by alchemists to designate a solvent,
and even today one occasionally hears of a
solvent medium being so called, e.g., Pitkin
menstruum, a medium for the administration of heparin. What has this to do with
menstruation? In centuries past, the product of uterine flow or menstrua (in classical
Latin the neuter plural was always used) was
fancied as the medium by which the male
and female elements (viz., the sperm and the
ovum) were united, or "dissolved," into a
single being that gained form as the fetus.
mental represents two terms and can refer to
the mind or to the chin, depending on which
of two distinct Latin words is considered the
source. In common and most frequent usage,
"mental" refers to the mind and, as such, is
derived from the Latin mens, "the mind or intellect." Just as properly, butin anothersense,
"mental” is derived from the Latin mentum,
"the chin." The mental artery goes notto the
brain but, as a branch of the maxillary
artery, to the skin and subcutaneous tissues
ofthe chin.
menthol is a volatile oil that gives off a minty
odor and is a common ingredient ofliniments
and lends a tang to the ambiance of locker
rooms. The Latin word for mint is mentha,
closely related to the Greek mintha. In Greek
mythology, Minthe was the name of a nymph
who caught the roving eye of Pluto. In a fit of
jealousy, Proserpine, Pluto's wife, transformed
the nymph into an herb that was then
known by her name. The Reverend Cobham
Brewer, writing a century ago, pointed out
that, Pluto being god of the underworld,
Minthe was saved by her transformation,
presumably "from a fate worse than death,"
and thus became a symbol of healing.
mercury is a metallic element, unique in being
liquid at room temperature. Mercury is the
name of a deity in Roman mythology (known
to the Greeks as Hermes) who served as a celestial messenger, but more than that he was,
in his own right, god of science and commerce, patron of travelers and rogues, vagabonds, and thieves, a curious combination of
interests. Probably because Mercury was
thought of as swift and elusive in his duties,
his name was attached to the shiny, slippery
substance that was long known as "quicksilver." To the Greeks, the element was known
as hydrargyros, combining ydor, "water," + argyros, "silver." From hydrargyros comes the
chemical symbol "Hg" for mercury.
mercyism (see rumination)
meso-, mesen- are combining forms, usually
appearing as prefixes, taken from the Greek
mesos, "middle." Thus, the mesencephalon
(+ Greek enkephalos, "brain") is the Midbrain. The mesenchyma (+ Greek enchyma,
"instillation”) is that embryologic tissue, situated in the mesoderm (+ Greek derma,
"skin"), the middle germ layer between the
ectoderm and the entoderm, that gives rise to
connective tissue and to constituents of the
vascular and musculoskeletal systems. The
mesentery (+ Greek enteron, "intestine")
would seem to be "the middle intestine." This,
of course, is not so. Rather, the Greek enteron
originally referred to the viscera generally.
The mesentery, then, is properly named as
the supporting membrane situated in the
midst ofthe viscera.
mesmerism is so called from Franz Mesmer
(1734-1815), an Austrian physician. The
newly discovered properties of magnetism
had become popular atthe time, and Mesmer
evolved the theory that a similar force could
exercise a profound effect on the human
body. This supposed force, known as "animal
magnetism," purportedly could be transferred from one person to another. The practice of summoning and exerting this force,
widely promoted by Mesmer, was a form of
hypnotism, thus "to mesmerize" became part
of the language. Both Mesmer and mesmerism fell into disrepute when French authorities, commissioned to investigate the
man and his method, issued an unfavorable
report. Hypnotism is akin to mesmerism,
shorn of all fanciful ideas of "animal magnetism." (see hypnosis)
meta- is a Greek preposition that can mean
"among, between," or "after, above, beyond,"
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metabolism metric
or "by way of change." It is in these last two
senses that "meta-" is incorporated in a host
of scientific names.
metabolism is a contrived term, combining
meta- + Greek ballein, "to throw,” that was introduced in 1839 by Theodor Schwann (1810-
1882), an eminent German anatomist and
physiologist, to designate the chemical
changes whereby nutriment is converted (or
"thrown into a different position") to energy
and living tissues.
metacarpal describes the small bones situated
in the hand "beyond" the wrist (meta- +
Greek karpos, "wrist"). Their counterparts in
the foot are the metatarsal bones. The
analogy may be apt, but the etymology is a
bit off the mark. "Metatarsal" came into use
much later than "metacarpal." The tarsal
bones owe their name to the Greek tarsos,
which means "a flat surface"; tarsos podos
means "the flat of the foot." The metatarsal
bones are situated beyond the tarsal bones,
but they are not exactly beyond the flat of
the foot.
metachromasia signifies a condition wherein
certain abnormal cells appear to differ in
color or intensity from their normal counterparts when treated with a given stain (meta-
- Greek chroma, "color").
metamorphosis is a change in configuration,
as from a caterpillar into a butterfly (meta- +
Greek morphe, "form").
metanalysis is a recently exploited statistical
technique whereby data from all available
references to a given topic are combined to
yield maximum information with minimum
concern for disparity. Skeptics have been
known to call it "legitimized plagiarism." The
term was introduced earlier (in 1914, and
usually spelled "meta-analysis") to serve a
quite different purpose, viz., in linguistics to
denote a rearrangement of sounds or words
to form different constituents. An example is
the evolution of "an apron" from "a napron."
Another is the evolution of what sounds like
"Emma Chisit" in Australian dialect from
"How much is it?"
metaplasia is a process whereby a change
takes place "beyond" the normal adult form
(meta- + Greek plassein, "to shape or to
mold"), as when, in response to injury, gastric
mucosa assumes a form resembling intestinal mucosa.
metastasis was used by the ancient Greeks to
mean "removal from one place to another"
(meta- + Greek stasis, "a placing"). The term
was introduced into Late Latin to indicate a
shift of disease from one part of the body to
another. Now it is used almost exclusively in
reference to the spread of malignant neoplasms to sites distant from their primary
source.
metatarsal (see metacarpal)
meteorism is the condition wherein the gut is
distended by excessive gas, most of which is
swallowed air. The term comes from the Greek
metedros, "suspended in midair or raised
aloft." To the patient afflicted with meteorism,
his abdomen feels asthough it were a balloon.
He may also feel as though he were about to
take off, like a meteor,
meter (see metric)
methemoglobin is a term introduced by Ernst
Hoppe-Seyler (1825-1895), a German biochemist, for the change (thus the prefix
"met-") that occurs in hemogobin when its
iron content has been oxidized from the ferrous to the ferric state, from which oxygen
cannot be readily released. Note that the "t"
and the "h" are pronounced separately,
methyl is represented by the radical CH3, A
simple prototype substance is methanol
(CH3OH), an alcohol originally distilled from
wood. The term is attributed to Johann Jakob
Berzelius (1779-1848), a Swedish chemist,
who combined the Greek methy, "wine," + ule,
"wood." Chemists were well grounded in classical languages in those days,
metr- is a combining form taken from the
Greek metra, "uterus." Thus, the endometrium is the lining of the uterus, the myometrium is the muscular wall of the uterus,
and metrorrhagia (+ Greek rhegnymi, "to
flow from") is bleeding from the uterus at
times other than regular menstruation,
metric is borrowed from the Greek metron, "a
measure, rule, or standard." What we know
as the metric system is a product of the
French Revolution. Before this momentous
political upheaval, no European country had
any uniform system of measures or weights.
In 1790 the revolutionary assembly charged
146
metrorrhagia midwifery
PREFIX ABBREVIATION DERIVATION POWER OF 10 EQUIVALENT
tera- T Greek teras, "monster" 1012 trillion
giga- G Greek gigas, "giant" 109 billion
mega- M Greek megas, "large" 10s million
kilo- k Greek chilioi, "thousand" 103 thousand
hecto- h Greek hekaton, "hundred" 102 hundred
deca- da Greek deka, "ten" 10’ ten
ded- d Latin decimus, "a tenth" 10-’ one tenth
centl- c Latin centum, "a hundredth" io-2 one hundredth
milll- m Latin millesimus, "a thousandth" 10-3 one thousandth
micro- M Greek mikros, "small" io-6 one millionth
nano- n Greek nanos, "dwarf" 10-’ one billionth
plco- p Italian pico, "small" 10-’2 one trillionth
femto- f Danish femten, "fifteen" 10-1J one quadrillionth
the Academie des sciences with the task of devising a sensible and universally usable
system. Nine years later the work was done.
Except for minor corrections in ensuing years,
the basic concept remains. The genius of the
system is thatit is designed on a base of 10,
i.e., it is a "decimal system," and its derived
units can be calculated merely by shifting a
decimal point. The entire system is based on
only two "natural" units: the meter, as a
measure of length (originally intended to be
1/10,000,000 the distance ofthe earth's surface from the equator to either pole), and the
gram, as a measure of weight or mass (being
that of pure water at maximum density, sufficient to fill a cube whose edges are 0.01
meter). All other units are therefrom derived.
Some are named in the table above,
metrorrhagia (see menstruation)
miasma is a direct borrowing ofthe Greek word
for a supposedly noxious vapor arising from
contaminated soil and thereby the cause of
disease endemic to certain areas. Miasma was
once thought to be the cause of malaria.
When the true cause of malaria and similar
afflictions became known, the concept of
miasma fell into disrepute. For a time the
term was thought outmoded, butlikely it can
be revived and again found useful in the light
of recently evident environmental pollution,
micelle refers to a unit of structure built up
from polymeric molecules or ions, as (a) an
ordered region of a fiber (as of cellulose or
rayon), or (b) a molecular aggregate that
constitutes a colloidal particle. It is in the
latter sense thatthe term is used in biochemistry to designate an aggregate ofsurfactant
molecules in solution (e.g., in lipids).
"Micelle" is derived from the Latin mica, “a
crumb or morsel," perhaps akin to the Greek
mikros, "small." (Notto be confused is "mica"
as the name for a crystalline mineral, taken
from the Latin micare, "to sparkle or glisten.”)
micro- is a combining form, usually used as a
prefix, that is a near borrowing ofthe Greek
mikros, "small, petty, trivial." The number of
medical terms incorporating "micro-" is not
small.
microbe is a concoction of micro- + the Greek
bios, "life," proposed in the late 19th century
to designate any minute, living organism;
useful as a generic term for the gamut from
viruses to protozoa.
microscope is a term said to have been invented in 1628 by Johannes Faber (1574-
1629) by combining micro- + Greek skopein,
“to view." Faber's offering surely was an improvement on vitrum pulicare, "flea glass," as
the earliest lenses were known by those fascinated by a magnified view ofscurrying fleas.
A microtome (+ Greek tome, "a cutting") is
an instrument for cutting ultra-thin sections
oftissue preparatory to examination under a
microscope,
microvilli (see villus)
micturate (see urine)
midwifery refers to the performance of a midwife, a person who assists a woman at childbirth. The term originated with the OldEnglish
mid-, "together with," + wif, "a woman." The
147
migraine mitral
"wife" is the one being assisted, not the one
who is assisting. In current and common parlance, a midwife is a nurse or other practitioner, specially trained and experienced in
attending women at childbirth. But many
years ago in some medical schools the head
of the obstetrics department held the title
"professor of midwifery."
migraine is a common and severe head pain
that has been long recognized as typically occurring on only one side ofthe head at a time.
The term began as the Latin hemicrania, taken
from the Greek hemi-, “half," + kranion, "the
skull." In Medieval Latin this was shortened
to migraena and came into French as migraine.
miliary is used in pathology to describe lesions
that are ofthe size of millet seeds, e.g., the lesions of "miliary" tuberculosis. But how many
doctors have ever seen a millet seed? Millet is
a cereal grass cultivated through the centuries for food and fodder. Its seed is about
2 millimeters in diameter. The Latin word for
millet is milium, hence the derived adjective.
Milaria is a skin condition characterized by
eruption of numerous papules, approximately the size of millet seeds. It results from
abnormal retention of fluid in sweat glands
and often is marked by extravasation of
sweat into adjacent layers of the skin, with
attendant inflammatory reaction.
mimetic describes the simulation of an organic
process in health or disease. Often it appears
as a suffix, as in "sympathomimetic." The
term is taken from the Greek mimetikos,
"mimicking or imitative."
Minamata disease is a severe neurologic disorder, the result of alkyl Hg (Mercury) (Over(Dose;load);Poisoning; Toxicity)
and characterized by peripheral and circumoral paresthesia, ataxia, dysarthria, and loss
of peripheral vision. Minamata is the name
of a bayside town in western Japan, where in
the 1950s an outbreak ofthe disease occurred
among inhabitants who consumed seafood
contaminated by mercury-laden industrial
waste.
minim was formerly used in pharmacy and
therapeutics as the term for "a small drop,"
taken from the Latin minimus, "the smallest
or the least." Small doses of liquid medicines
were prescribed in minims. It became obvious
that all drops are not of the same size, and in
the mid-19th century the London College of
Physicians defined a "minim" as 1/60 of a
dram or 1/480 of a fluid ounce. Today, most
liquid medicines are dispensed with their own
standard dropper to ensure a proper dose.
miosis (see mydriasis)
mithidratism is the technique of inducing immunity to the effects of a poison by administering at first minute amounts and then
gradually increasing the doses of the poisonous substance. This is somewhat akin to
desensitizing an allergic person by injecting
increasing amounts of the antigen that
causes the reaction. The term is taken from
the name of Mithridates, king of Pontus, an
ancient country bordering on the Black Sea.
As a precaution against being poisoned,
Mithridates cautiously and diligently conditioned himself to the effects ofsome noxious
substance (which one is not known). As it
turned out, Mithridates was defeated in war
and captured by the Roman general Pompey
in 67 B.C. To evade the ignominy of his plight,
Mithridates tried to commit suicide by taking
poison but failed. As a last resort, he bade his
slave run him through with a sword. So
much, then, for being overly cautious.
mitochondrium combines the Greek mitos, "a
thread," + chondros, "a cereal grain" or any
coarsely granular substance. The term was
introduced in 1902 by Karl Benda (1857-
1933), a German physician, as a name for
the granularstructures containing threadlike
membranes found in the cytoplasm of cells.
mitogen is a name for an agent that induces
mitosis, hence proliferation of cells, particularly those involved in immunity, (see
mitosis)
mitosis was suggested in 1882 as a term for cell
division by Walther Flemming (1843-1905), a
German cytologist. The term was taken from
the Greek mitos, "a thread," the allusion
being to the threadlike formation of nuclear
chromatin as it becomes conspicuous in a cell
prepared to divide.
mitral as a descriptive term for the bicuspid
valve between the left atrium and ventricle of
the heart is so used because the two cusps of
the valve resemble a bishop’s miter or headdress. The Latin mitra referred to a cloth band
that could be worn either as a girdle or as a
148
mittelschmerz monosnood or headband. Perhaps here there is a
relation to the Greek mitos, "a thread," as in
woven cloth.
mittelschmerz is a term given to pelvic pangs
that women might feel midway in the menstrual cycle, caused by extrusion of an ovum
from the ovary. Obviously Germanic (mittel,
"middle" + schmerz, "pain"), it could easily be
"middle pain" in plain English, but as such it
would lose its distinctiveness.
mnemonic comes from the Greek mneme,
"memory." Mnemonics is the art ofimproving
memory, and mnemonic devices are those
that aid in recollection. Medical students
through the ages, required to commit to
memory a vast store of information, have
been among the most avid users of mnemonic
devices. An example is given in the entry for
"carpal." The problem is, of course, that
sometimes one remembers the mnemonic
device but forgets what it represents. An
anamnesis (+ Greek ana-, "again") is a recollection, and a word that can serve as a
fancy term for a preliminary medical history,
as opposed to a catamnesis (+ Greek kata-,
"back down"), a retrospective follow-up account. The Greek goddess of memory was
given the name Mnemosyne, the spelling of
which is not easy to remember.
moiety comes by way of the French moitie from
the Latin medietas, "the middle or the mean."
Originally, "moiety" meant "half," but now
it can refer to any designated portion, e.g.,
the carbohydrate moiety of a glycoprotein.
molar is the name for a tooth that grinds. It
comes from the Latin mola, "millstone."
Molar teeth are thus distinguished from incisor teeth, which are designed for a different
purpose. Ask anyone whose molarteeth have
been extracted how well he can chew with
only his frontteeth.
mole can mean a number of things: a dark spot
on the skin, a uterine mass, a chemical mass,
a breakwater or pier, or a small burrowing
animal. The mole ofthe skin comes from the
Gothic mail, "a wrinkle or blemish." The mole
that is a fleshy mass formed in the uterus as
a result of degeneration or abortive development of an embedded ovum comes from the
Latin moles, “a mass or pile." From this same
Latin source comes "mole" as a word for the
massive pile ofstone forming a breakwater
or pier, and also for the term designating the
mass in grams of a chemical compound numerically equivalent to its molecular weight.
This latter "mole" is a convenient abbreviation of "molecule," which itself is a diminutive of the Latin moles, i.e., "a little mass." In
this instance we have the odd sequence of a
standard term converted to its diminutive,
then back again to its standard form,
molecule is taken almost directly from the New
Latin molecula, the diminutive of moles,
"mass," i.e., a mass of exceedingly small size,
molluscum as in "molluscum contagiosum"
comes from the Latin mollis, "soft or spongy."
Originally, the Latin molluscum referred to a
soft fungus growing on trees, and also to a
sort of nut with a soft shell. The phylum
Mollusca includes snails, squids, and octupuses. To mollify is to soften, and mollycoddle means to pamper. Somehow the
image of mollycoddling an octopus does not
readily come to mind. In pathology, molluscum contagiosum is a spongy excrescence
ofthe skin caused by a transmissible virus,
monad in biology is a single-celled organism,
particularly a primitive protozoan. A pseudomonad is any of the ubiquitous, rodshaped, gram-negative, flagellated bacteria
of the phylum Pseudomonad, commonly
found in dank soil or decaying matter. The
name was given, supposedly, to distinguish
these organisms from monads or protozoa
that had been previously described. Included
in this phylum is the genus Pseudomonas,
certain species of which are pathogenic and
often recognized as a cause of opportunistic
infection in humans.
mongolism is a term once applied to a congenital affliction now known to be the result of a
chromosomal aberration (see -ploid). In addition to retarded mentality, such persons also
exhibit a physiognomy typical of Mongols,
viz., flat face, small nose, and epicanthal folds.
The condition is now more properly known
as Down's syndrome, an early description
having been given by John Langdon Haydon
Down (1828-1896), an English physician,
moniliasis (see Candida albicans)
mono- is a prefix derived from the Greek monos,
"single," and denotes reference to one thing
149
monoclonal morphology
or part, especially a basic unit. For example,
a mononuclear cell contains a single nuclear clump. Occasionally one hears mono
as a nickname for the disease known as infectious mononucleosis,
monoclonal (see hybridoma)
monomania is a psychosis limited to a single
delusion (mono- + the Greek mania, "madness").
monster is sometimes construed as being related to "huge,” butits use in reference to size
reflects only a subsidiary meaning. In
mythology, a monster is a fabled creature
that hideously combines animal and human
forms. In pathology, a monster is an infant
born with a grotesque anomaly, such as an
absence or excess of limbs, or other misshapen form. Whatever its use, "monster"
comes from the Latin monstrum, "a divine
omen, portent, or warning," this being related to the verb monere, "to warn."
Fortunately, the belief has long dissipated
that delivery of a deformed infant is a sign of
divine wrath.
mons veneris is the rounded prominence covering the pubic arch just above the female
external genitalia. Mons is Latin for "hill or
mountain"; veneris refers to Venus, the Roman
goddess of love and whatever may appertain
thereto.
Montezuma's revenge is a playful name for
the rigors oftraveler’s diarrhea that can afflict
visitors to Mexico. The allusion is to retribution for the overthrow of the last Aztec emperor by the Spanish conquistador Hernando
Cortes in 1520. The mincing gait of one so
beset has been called the Aztec two-step.
Reference to traveler's diarrhea acquired elsewhere has incorporated the name of the
locale; examples include Delhi belly, Rangoon runs, and Teheran trots,
morbilliform describes a rash that resembles
that of measles. The term is taken from the
Latin morbilli, "measles."
morbid is an adjective derived from the Latin
morbus, "sickness or disease." What we now
call "pathology" was at one time known as
"morbid anatomy."
mordant describes a substance used to intensify
the staining oftissue sections for microscopy.
Examples include alum, aniline, certain oils,
and phenol. The term is taken from the Latin
mordere, “to bite into."
morgue is the French word originally used for a
place where captured prisoners were first examined, then later for a place where the
bodies of persons recently dead could be
viewed and identified; it is not related to the
Latin mors, "death.” The term comes from the
Old French verb morguer, "to regard solemnly."
Knowing the derivation of "morgue" can
remind us of the proper demeanor when witnessing a necropsy.
moribund is a near borrowing of the Latin
moribundus, "at the point of death." The
Latin word is equivalent to the verb mori, "to
die," + bundus, an adjectival suffix meaning
"tending to or bound for."
moron is a term codified about 1905 by two
French psychologists, Alfred Benet (1857-
1911) and Theodore Simon (1873-1961), who
were charged by the authorities responsible
for the care ofthe feebleminded with the task
of devising tests to determine the levels of
mental retardation. According to the BinetSimon scale, the mental ages of retarded
adults are: 1 to 2 years, "idiot"; 3 to 7 years,
"imbecile"; and 8 to 12 years, "moron." Binet
and Simon may have been inspired in their
choice of the last term by their compatriot,
the 17th-century French playwright Moliere,
who gave the name Moron to the fool in one
of his plays. In any event, the name can be
traced to the Greek moros, "dull, sluggish,
slow in wit.” (see idiot; also imbecile)
morphine is the name given to the principal
alkaloid of opium in 1805 by a German
apothecary, Adolf Serturner (1783-1841),
doubtless inspired by his acquaintance with
Morpheus, the mythologic god of dreams. In
the parlance of show business, Morpheus
"created, designed, and produced" nocturnal
fantasies. Morpheus, in turn, was a fantasy
of the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 17).
The Greeks had no such god. Ovid needed a
god of dreams (distinct from Somnus, the
Greek god of sleep) when composing his
poem Metamorphoses, which tells of amatory
pursuits, both worldly and unworldly.
morphology combines the Greek morphe,
"form, shape, or appearance," + logos, "a discourse." In biology, "morphology" properly
150
mortal murmur
refers to a study or treatise on the form or
structure of an organism or its parts, as contrasted with physiology, a study of its function. Whatever is amorphous is without
shape or form.
mortal means subject to death, in contrast to
immortal. Somatic cells are inexorably
mortal, whereas reproductive cells are potentially immortal. "Mortal" comes from the
Latin mors, "death." This brings to mind several similar words. Fatal (from Latin fatum,
"prophecy or doom") means capable of causing death or disaster. One can speak of "a
fatal mistake" without necessarily implying
a consequence of death. Deadly means capable of killing, as in "a deadly disease."
Lethal describes an agent of death, and is
derived from the Latin letum, "death or destruction" (not from the Latin lethe, "forgetfulness," the source oflethargy),
mortar (see pestle; also trituration)
morula is the diminutive of the Latin morum,
"berry," usually a mulberry or a blackberry.
As an allusion to its berry-like shape, the
cluster of blastomeres formed by cleavage of
a fertilized ovum is called a "morula."
mosquito (see Anopheles)
mountebank is an epithet for a quack doctor
and comes from the Italian montambanco, a
combination of montare, "to mount," + banco,
"bench," literally "one who mounts a bench"
to proclaim his nostrums. If what a mountebank had to say carried the weight oftruth, he
wouldn't have to make such a fuss aboutit.
mucin (see mucus)
mucosa is a convenient shortening ofthe Latin
membrana mucosa, which refers to any membrane orsurface thatis slimy,
mucus is the Latin word for "a semi-fluid, slimy
discharge from the nose." The Greek mukteris
"the nose or snout." Incidentally, the colloquial, vulgar term "snot" comes from "snout,"
literally. In current usage, "mucus" designates a clear, viscid fluid exuded from any
epithelial surface. Its chief constituent is
mucin, a polysaccharide, but it also may
contain various inorganic salts, leukocytes,
and desquamated epithelial cells. Some
people who are slipshod in theirspelling tend
to confuse "mucus" (the noun) and "mucous"
(the adjective).
multi- is a combining form, usually a prefix,
that comes from the Latin adjective multus,
"many or abundant." The medical terms so
formed are, indeed, multiple. One example is
multipara (+ Latin parere, "to give birth
to"), the term for a woman who has given
birth to more than one child,
mumps probably is related to the Icelandic
mumpa, "to eat greedily, to fill the mouth too
full." A major feature of mumps is visible
swelling of the parotid glands, and this
makes the afflicted person appear to have a
large mouthful. A related word is "mumble,"
meaning to speak indistinctly, as if one's
mouth were full of marbles. However,
"mumps" also has been attributed to the Old
English verb mump, which meant to appear
sulky or sullen. This, too, could describe the
countenance of a patient afflicted by mumps.
Munchhausen syndrome was so named by
Dr. Richard Asher (Lancet. 1951;1:35), an exceptionally perceptive and articulate English
physician, to describe the startling and often
bizarre presentation by arch-malingerers who
feign catastrophic illness by citing all sorts of
outlandish and improbable symptoms. Asher
offered alternative terms, depending on the
expression: laparotomaphilia migrans, hemorrhagica histrionica, and neurologica diabolica. Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von
Munchhausen (1720-1797), a German soldier, adventurer, and extravagant raconteur,
became the protagonist of a further embellished narrative of impossible adventures,
written in English in 1785 by Rudolf Eric
Raspe, a German author. In 1850 the word
"Munchhausenism," meaning exaggerated
tales, was applied to the writings of Herodotus,
the ancient Greek historian,
murmur is a Latin as well as an English word
and has the same meaning in both languages. To the Romans, murmur also could
mean "growling or rumbling." A related
word is the Sanskrit marmaras, "noisy, as the
rustling wind." The onomatopoeic quality of
the word is enhanced by its reduplication of
sounds. When French clinicians in the early
19th century described what they heard from
the beating heart, all sounds were called by
the French word bruit. It was Joseph Skoda
(1805-1881), an Austrian physician, who
151
Murphy's law mydriasis
dearly distinguished normal hearttones from
adventitious murmurs.
Murphy's law is often cited in medical circles,
in one or another of its several versions: (a)
nothing is as easy as it appears, (b) any job
will take longer than you think, or (c) if anything can go wrong, it will. The last version is
heard most often. Strange to say, no one
knows who Murphy is or ifthere ever was an
actual Murphy. According to Robert T. Nagler,
as quoted by William and Mary Morris in
their Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins
(New York: Harper & Row, 1977), "Murphy's
laws were not propounded by Murphy but by
another man of the same name (the first
law); and although I have spent many years
atthe task, I have been able to discover nothing about the life and career of this great
philosopher (the second law)." Nagler concludes by saying that Murphy may have
been the fellow who undertook one evening
to stroll along a deserted country lane, taking
the precaution to walk on the left side of the
road so as to face oncoming traffic, then was
struck down by a motorist from England who
had just arrived that day in this country (the
third law).
muscarinic refers to the parasympathomimetic action of certain cholinergic agonists.
The origin of the term is in the Latin musca,
"a fly." The prototype is muscarine, a natural alkaloid isolated in 1869 from a species of
poisonous mushroom called Amanita muscaria. Amanita is an ancient Greek name for a
kind offungus; muscaria refers to its hairy appearance. The Latin muscarium means, literally, "pertaining to flies," but to the Romans
a muscarium was specifically a sort of fly
swatter made up of hairs from a horse’s tail.
If a horse can get rid offlies with a flick of his
tail, the Romans could follow suit. So, the
hairy mushroom that looked a little like a fly
swatter was found to contain a poisonous alkaloid that was given the name of the fly
swatter. Is all this clear?
muscle comes from the Latin musculus, the
diminutive of mus, "a mouse," hence, literally, "a little mouse." The use of musculus for
muscle (and that is what it meant to the
Romans) is usually explained by the allusion
of rippling muscles observed under the skin
to the scurrying of little mice; or perhaps it
was fancied thatthe shape of dissected muscles resembled that of small rodents. This
may seem farfetched, but the fact is that preGalenic anatomists had little knowledge of
the function of muscles. Indeed, Plato and
Aristotle, among other ancient authorities,
conceived of muscular tissue as simply another form of flesh serving as a cover for the
body. This brings us to two Greek words: mus,
meaning both "mouse" and "a muscle of the
body," and myd, meaning "I close," especially the lips and the eyes, thus implying a
muscular function. To either of these Greek
words, the combining form myo- (q.v.) may
be owed.
mutation is derived from the Latin mutare, "to
move, shift, change, or alter." In biology, a
mutant is an offspring whose phenotype
("pheno-" comes from the Greek phainein, "to
show"), or outward expression ofits heredity,
differs from that normally expected of its
genotype ("geno-" comes from the Greek
gennad, "I produce"), or genetic disposition of
its parents. The genetic theory of mutation
was advanced in 1886 by Hugo de Vries
(1848-1935), a Dutch botanist. Previous to de
Vries' explanation, such an aberration was
recognized but poorly understood and was
called a sport. "Sport" is a contraction ofthe
Middle English disporter, "to amuse oneself,"
in turn, derived from the Latin dis-, "away,” +
portare, "to carry." This accounts for "sport"
as a diverting game and for "sport" as a
mutant; in both there is a sense of being "carried away."
mycelium comes from the Greek mykes,
"fungus," + helos, "an ornamental nail or
stud." Presumably, the array of fungal filaments or "mycelia” was thought to resemble
a collection of decorative nails. The combining prefixes myc-, myco-, and mycetappear in a number of biological terms and
denote relationship to a fungus.
mydriasis is a Latin term meaning an unnatural dilatation of the pupil of the eye. Such a
dilatation can be induced by an anticholinergic drug, such as atropine, or by an intense,
endogenous, adrenergic (sympathomimetic)
stimulus. The latter phenomenon could explain the origin of the term in the Greek
152
myelin myxedema
mydros, “a red-hot mass." The Greek phrase
mydrous airein cheroin can be translated as "to
grasp masses of red-hot iron," as an ordeal.
Surely under such trying circumstances, the
pupils of the eyes would dilate. In contrast,
miosis is an excessive contraction of the
pupil of the eye, the term being a near borrowing of the Greek meiosis, “a lessening."
This is in no way related or connected to
"myopia" or nearsightedness.
myelin (see myelo-)
myelo- is a combining form taken from the
Greek myelos, "the marrow or inmost core." In
medicine, this can refer either to the marrow
of bone or to the "marrow" ofthe central nervous system, viz., the brain, the peripheral
nerves, and especially the spinal cord. It is
easy to conceive ofbone marrow as the core of
hollow bones. But the application ofthe term
to the central nervous system is more difficult
to appreciate unless one looks at these structures through the eyes of early, uninitiated observers. To them, the spinal cord might appear
to be the "marrow" of the spinal canal, and
the brain the "marrow" ofthe skull. By tradition, therefore, myelitis can be an inflammation either of the spinal cord or within
bone (though the latter usually is qualified
as osteomyelitis). Myelophthisis (+ Greek
phthisis, "a wasting") can be either degeneration of the spinal cord or a withering of cellular production in bone marrow. On the other
hand, myeloma (+ -oma, "tumor") is restricted to neoplasia arising in constituents of
bone marrow, not ofnervous tissue. But sometimes tradition persists despite logic. What we
call myelin is actually the substance of a
fatty sheath enveloping certain nerve fibers
and clearly notthe core of nerve tracts.
mylohyoid is a muscle whose name tells us
that it extends from the lower jaw to the
hyoid bone. The first part, "mylo-," comes
from the Greek myle, "a mill" (the lower jaw
is part of a mill wherein the teeth are
grinders). "Hyoid" is a classical way ofsaying
"U-shaped," (i.e., like the Greek letter upsilon), and that describes the hyoid bone.
myo- is a prefix denoting a relation to muscle
and can define a structure (as in "myocardium" or tell the origin of a substance (as
in "myoglobin"), (see muscle)
myopia is the technical term for nearsightedness and, as such, is a somewhatspecial case.
This clearly is a combination of the Greek
myo, "I close," + ops (the "ps" being the Greek
letter psi), which means "the eye." This adds
up to "shut eye.” Observe the nearsighted
person as he tries, without glasses, to look at
a distant object. He squints. It is the squint,
or closing ofthe lids, that suggested the term
"myopia."
myringotomy is the operation of incising the
ear drum or tympanic membrane in order to
drain pus from infection of the middle ear.
The term combines the Latin myringa, "membrane," + the Greek tome, "a cutting." Although there are many membranes in the
body, the combining form myringo- in medical parlance refers only to the tympanic
membrane ofthe ear.
myxedema is contrived by combining the
Greek myxa, "mucus," originally used in reference to the discharge from the nose, +
oidema, "a swelling up." It was Sir William
Gull (1816-1890), an English physician, who
first described in 1873 the peculiar swelling
of subcutaneous tissue associated with thyroid insufficiency, as observed in a "cretinoid
state" in adults. In 1877 William Ord (1834-
1902), an English surgeon, proposed the term
"myxoedema” (the British spelling) for this
"mucoid dropsy."