Why care about these questions? Well, they are fun little puzzles
that reveal interesting things, but if you are more practical than
that, they resemble the sorts of questions that will be on the
midterm.
What body part and what action does 'chirothesia' involve?
imposition
of hands as in the ecclesiastical rites of confirmation and
ordination
What other English words can you think
of that involve the Greek element for that body part? chiral, enchiridion, surgeon, chiromancy,
chiropodous
Think
of or invent or discover words with the following etymological
meaning:
- stomach-foot GASTROPOD
- in-stomach-story (classical soothsaying phenomenon of
speaking without appearing to speak, associated especially
with prophetesses such as the famous Delphic Oracle) ENGASTRIMYTH
- stomach-law-thing GASTRONOMY
If you perform 'hypodermoclysis,' where would you be putting saline,
glucose or some other solution?
What other English words can you think of that involve the Greek
element for that body part?
An Earwig By
fir0002flagstaffotos [at] gmail.comCanon 20D + Sigma 150mm f/2.8 -
Own work, GFDL 1.2,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3206716
The scientific
name for the order, Dermaptera, is Greek in origin, stemming from the
words derma, meaning 'skin', and pteron
(plural ptera), meaning 'wing'. It was coined by Charles De Geer in 1773. The
common term, earwig, is derived from the Old English ēare, which
means 'ear', and wicga, which
means 'insect', or literally, 'beetle'.
Think of or invent or discover words with the following
etymological meaning:
- no-head-adj: ACEPHALIC
- water-head-adj: HYDROCEPHALIC
- in-head-thing: ENCEPHALON
- in-head-inflammation: ENCEPHALITIS
If a 'euphemism' is a nice word for something, what is a dysphemism?
Any examples come to mind? old man for
father, old lady for wife, heap for car, shitter for toilet...
- gill-o-foot: (mostly freshwater crustacea: have gills on feet
and mouth parts) BRANCHIOPOD
- all-flesh (a gland in your guts) PANCREAS
- flesh-o-save-er (used on telephone poles and railroad ties to
preserve wood) CREOSOTE
Take apart the following:
onychophagy
onychorrhexis
onychauxis
onycholysis
onychophora:
a class
of Arthropoda or an independent phylum comprising small
elongated velvety-skinned terrestrial invertebrate animals of
damp dark habitats in warm regions that are in some respects
intermediate between annelid worms and typical arthropods,
that have an unsegmented vermiform body, numerous pairs of
short unsegmented legs with terminal bifid claws, and a head
bearing a pair of segmented antennae, a pair of oral papillae
on which slime glands open, a pair of simple eyes, and a pair
of jaws resembling blades, that possess a hemocoel as a body
cavity, and that breathe by means of tracheae and excrete by
means of nephridia
- hair-jaw: CHAETOGNATHA
- forward-jaw-ed: PROGNATHOUS
- different-clawed : having the claws unlike in size and form: HETEROCHELOUS
- knee-pain: GONALGIA
- god-seed-ness: THEOGONY
- six-side: HEXAGON
- first-contest-agent: PROTAGONIST
- liver-out-cut-thing HEPATECTOMY
- breast-tooth MASTODON
- no-breast-thing AMAZON
- cartilage-out-cut-thing CHONDRECTOMY
An Amazon
By GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41148765
- narrow-seed-fruit-thing: the biological
mechanism that produces seedlessness in some fruits, notably
many table grapes: STENOSPERMOCARPY
- red-cell-o-make-action : the creation of red blood
cells ERYTHROCYTOPOIESIS
- inside-womb-morbid condition: ENDOMETRIOSIS
- womb-thing HYSTERIA
- flesh-eat-adj
- two (or three) words SARCOPHAGUS/SARCHOPHAGOUS
and CREATOPHAGOUS
- poop-eating coprophagous
- eat-cell phagocyte
- knuckle-shaped
- gland-shaped
- almond-shaped
- breast-shaped
- marrow-shaped
What do you think a hystosalpingogram is?
An astrostereogram?
A cholecystogram?
A phonocardiogram?
A
hystosalpingogram is examination of the uterus and fallopian
tubes by radiography after injection of an opaque medium
an
astrosterogram is a pair of stereoscopic photographs of a
celestial body
a
cholecystogram is a radiograph of the gallbladder made
after ingestion or injection of a radiopaque substance
a
phonocardiogram is a graphic record of heart sounds made by
means of a microphone, amplifier, and galvanometer
- joint-bind-action (Surgical fusion of a joint with the goal of
pain relief) ARTHRODESIS
- fetal membrane-prick-action (a procedure for taking a sample
of fluid from around a fetus) AMNIOCENTESIS
- eyelid-jerk-result BLEPHAROSPASM
- artery-hard-morbid condition ARTERIOSCLEROSIS
- mucus-o-flow BLENNORRHEA
- eyelid-fall-action BLEPHAROPTOSIS
What is a nephrolithotomy?
What is laryngotracheobronchitis?
What was remarkable enough about a eunotosaurus
to give it that name? BTW, eunotosaurus is
a genus of small generalized
reptiles from the Middle Permian of southern Africa that have
the vertebrae reduced in number and the ribs broad and
somewhat leaf-shaped, are often considered ancestral to the
turtles, and are commonly placed in a separate suborder of
Chelonia
- muscle-pain MYALGIA
- grey-o-marrow-inflammation POLIOMYELITIS
- nerve-pain NEURALGIA
- yoke-nerve (a connecting neuron) ZYGONEURE
A neuron. By BruceBlaus - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28761830
- tube/pipe-gland-ous (pertaining to sweat glands) SYRINGADENOUS
- knuckle-joint-morbid condition (a modification of the
spheroidal form of synovial joint in which the articular
surfaces are ellipsoidal rather than spheroid) CONDYLARTHROSIS
- hair-bag (In ciliates and dinoflagellates,
this is an organelle that releases long filamentous proteins
that capture predators in "nets")
TRICHOCYST
- oh, BTW, the dino- in
dinoflagellate is not the dino- in dinosaur, but another
dino- meaning "whirly" or "circular"
What common American name means "Blacky"?
What do the parts of the name 'Philip' mean?
What confusion do those who spell it "Phillip" risk,
etymologically?
- black bile thing MELANCHOLY
- flat-shin-adj PLATYCNEMIC
- hollow-spine COELACANTH
- hollow-adj (an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine) COELIAC (DISEASE)
How many sides does an icosasphere have?
People who call their spouse a "ball and chain" or who say they are
"sick and tired" of something or who "go and visit" a friend are
using a figure of speech called a hendiadys. Why is it
called that?
What are the Greek elements of diagnosis?
- nose-horn rhinoceros
- horn-chemical KERATIN
- false-tail-adj-thing (refers to microscopic "tails" on
critters with tail-like things that propel them: last two
elements ar- and -ia are Latin, so might
be hard for now): PSEUDOCERCARIA
What is the Greek-derived word for "split personality" disorder?
Why is the phrase 'moulded plastic' redundant from the point of view
of etymology?
Senior power: through what normal development do older women 'stop
the moon'?
- hidden-gill-thing: a genus of true deep water limpets: CRYPTOBRANCHIA
- wrist-after-wrist-adjective (five joints in the wrist):
CARPOMETACARPAL
- heart-big-ness: medical condition
wherein the heart is enlarged: CARDIOMEGALY
- liver-spleen-big-ness: medical condition
wherein the liver and spleen are enlarged: HEPATOSPLENOMEGALY