“A little staff or stick.” “A star with long hair.” “Eager to learn.” Can you guess what words these definitions relate to? It won’t be hard to “decipher” them. The answers can all be found in this chapter.

Algebra

A long time ago, the Arabic term al jabr was used to refer to the medical operation used to set broken bones. It means the reuniting of something broken. References in old texts also show that al jabr later came to refer to the process of putting numbers together. In the 16th century, the two words appeared in English texts as algeber. Within a century, algeber came to be used in its present sense, as the name of the branch of mathematics that includes equations and the relationships between numbers.

Ambulance

Today medical care is considered a priority in the United States and elsewhere around the world. But this has not always been true. Surviving written records from past civilizations reveal that care of the sick was not usually considered a priority. Sometimes a chronically or terminally ill person was just left to die. But on the battlefield, the situation differed. Because good soldiers were needed at all times and could not be allowed to die, wounds had to be treated quickly. Cities were usually some distance from the battlefield, so a temporary structure was set up nearby to care for the wounded. Since the unfortunate soldiers either walked or were carried in, the French called this type of early field hospital hôpital ambulant, or “walking hospital.” Ambulant was a French derivative of the Latin participle ambulans, meaning “walking.” English later adopted the term, eliminated the first word and changed ambulant to “ambulance.” It now refers to the type of transportation used to transfer a patient.

The ancient Romans made steps toward medical progress in their time. They took care to avoid bad or night air—they thought it caused a feverish illness that they called malus aer (“bad air”). This reasoning proved correct, as it was later discovered that a type of mosquito often found in the night air caused what is now known as malaria.

Anthropology

Anthropology is the scientific study of the origins, behavior, and development of humans. The word comes from the Greek prefix anthropos, meaning “man” or “human being,” and the Greek noun logos, meaning “word,” “thought,” or “statement.”

Bacteria

Scientists in the mid-19th century looking through a microscope saw organisms that appeared to be little sticks. Following the tradition of the time, the scientists looked to Greek terms for a name for the organisms. Since baktron in Greek means “staff” and bakterion means “little staff or stick,” bakterion was adopted and adapted to the English language. The singular form is “bacterium”; plural is “bacteria.”

The first microscope was invented in 1675 by a Dutch inventor named Anton van Leeuwenhoek. By 1683, he had improved it enough so that he could see bacteria.

Center

The Greeks used their verb kentrein, meaning “to prick” or “to stick,” to form the noun kentron, meaning “something sharp and pointed,” such as a spur or thorn. Kentron also came to mean the specific area in the exact middle of a circle. As this area never moved, kentron came to represent the central point of a circle. The Romans adapted kentron to centrum, which in turn became “center.”

Centralism is a political system that designates all the power to a central government.

Comet

“Comet” is from two Greek words. Kometes means “with long hair,” and is derived from kome, meaning “the hair of the head.” To name the stars that orbited the sun and trailed long, cloudlike tails, the Greeks used their noun aster (“star”) and added kometes. This combination meant “a star with long hair” or “a star with a tail.” The Romans borrowed kometes and changed the spelling to cometa, from which we get “comet.”

The famous Halley’s Comet is named for English astronomer Edmond Halley. Records dating back to 240 b.c. suggest that its sightings occur about every 76 years. It was last seen in 1986.

Crescent

There are several meanings for “crescent.” One is a phase of a planet or a moon when it appears to have one concave edge and one convex edge. In ancient times, many of the peoples in the Middle East honored the moon in its first quarter (when it is shaped like a crescent) as a religious symbol. The rulers of the Byzantine Empire (4th to 15th centuries a.d.) adopted the crescent shape as their national symbol. Tradition says they did this because of the sudden appearance of a crescent-shaped moon that saved the empire from a surprise attack. Later, the leaders of the Ottoman Empire adopted the crescent shape as their national symbol. Since many of these rulers practiced Islam, the crescent also became closely associated with that religion. To name the crescent or C shape, the English language borrowed and then adapted the French participle creissant (meaning “growing”), which was itself a derivative of the Latin verb crescere (“to grow”).

Decipher

In Arabic, the word sifr means “empty” or “nothing.” When Arabic numerals (which originated in India) came into use in the West, the English adapted sifr to “cipher,” a term that has a variety of meanings. These meanings include the number zero, the process of working mathematically with Arabic numbers, and a method of secret writing using characters of any kind. By adding the Latin prefix de, meaning “from” or “out of,” English formed “decipher,” or “to figure out.”

Arabic versus Muslim versus Islamic: The word “Arabic” is used when speaking of the language of the Arab people. The term “Islamic” is used when speaking of the religion of Islam. The word “Muslim” is used when speaking of the culture and the people who follow the religion of Islam.

Electricity

The ancient Greeks did not discover electricity, but they did know that as you rubbed certain substances a variety of changes occurred. They especially were aware of what happened when you rubbed tree resin that had gradually turned to stone. Amber was their favorite hardened resin, attractive for its translucent color and its magnetic quality after being rubbed. The Greeks called amber elektron, from their word elektor, meaning “sunbeams” or “sun’s glare.” Many centuries later, when electricity was discovered, elektron was used as the base for the name of the science whose principals the ancients had first met in amber.

The first light bulb was produced by the English physicist and chemist Joseph Swan in 1860. However, the first practical light bulb that gave sufficient light for a sustained period of time was developed by Swan and U.S. inventor Thomas A. Edison in 1880.

Epidemic

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates used the term epidemos to mean “to be among people” or “to be prevalent.” This Greek term is a combination of the preposition epi, meaning “at,” and the noun demos, which means “people.” Today, an epidemic is a disease that spreads rapidly among people or animals.

Equinox

Twice a year the sun’s rays cross the equator. Since day and night are of equal length at these times, the noun “equinox” and the adjective equinoctial were formed from the Latin words aequus, meaning “equal,” and nox meaning “night.” The equinox that occurs about March 21 is referred to as the vernal equinox (vernus meaning “of spring”). The equinox that occurs about September 23 is referred to as the autumnal equinox (autumnus meaning “of autumn”).

Geology

The scientific study of the history of the earth, especially as it is found in rocks, is known as geology. The prefix “geo” is derived from the Greek noun ge, meaning “earth” or “ground.” The Greek noun logos means “word,” “thought,” or “statement.”

Geometry

Geometry means “to measure the earth.” It was formed by joining two Greek words, ge, meaning “earth,” and metrein, meaning “to measure.” Such a choice was appropriate, since this science was first used to measure the land.

Euclid, the 3rd-century b.c. mathematician, is credited with developing geometry. In his book Elements (Stoichera in Greek), he took earlier beliefs on the subject and developed the concepts and theories of geometry used today.

Hospital

“Hospital” literally means “a friendly place to rest.” The Latin noun hospes translates as both “guest” and “host.” The Romans believed that every hospes should be hospitalis, or “friendly.” When they needed a term to designate an inn or hotel—a place where many people could stay and pay as guests of a friendly host—the Romans coined the word hospitum. Centuries later, there was a great desire among Europeans to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land. These pilgrims were often poor and risked their lives on the journey. Around 1048, a military order of monks called Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem established a hospital, or special lodging place, in Jerusalem. They began to welcome and treat the many pilgrims who arrived in Jerusalem in need of medical attention. Thus, we have the gradual association of a hospital as a place that offers treatment to the ill.

The Knights of the Hospital of St. John still exist as an organization today. The group’s headquarters are in Rome.

Humor

The Latin noun humor translates as “a liquid.” However, when used in the plural, humores, it refers to the four liquid fluids: blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed these liquids were the key elements of a human being. The proportion of each fluid in relation to the others was what determined the health and personality of a person. Too much of any one humor radically affected the manner in which a person behaved. In English, “humor” came to mean “oddness,” and a humorous individual originally referred to a cranky person. Gradually, “humor” and humorous referred to someone who made others laugh at the oddities of life. In ancient times, the terms coined to represent each of the humores became the basis for the terms describing the effect created by too much of that particular humor. An overabundance of blood made a person sanguine, that is, “warm, hopeful, or bloodthirsty” (from the Latin sanguis, meaning “bloody.”) Too much phlegm made a person phlegmatic, or “composed or sluggish” (from the Greek phlegma, meaning “heat”). Too much bile made a person choleric or “hot-tempered” (from the Greek chole, meaning “bile”). Too much black bile made a person melancholy, that is, “gloomy or irritable” (from the Greek melas, meaning “black,” and chole, meaning “bile”).

Speaking of humor, the first comic strip appeared in the New York Journal on October 24, 1897. The strip was Richard Felton Outcault’s “The Yellow Kid.”

Invent

This verb is actually an abbreviated form of the Latin past participle inventum, meaning “having been found” or “found.” To form inventum, the Romans combined the preposition in, meaning “in” or “into,” with their verb venire, meaning “to come.”

George Washington Carver (1861–1943) invented dozens of uses for the peanut. These included grinding the nut into a powder, which was used to make soap, shampoo, and other products.

Mathematics

Because the early Greek thinkers saw numbers as a way to help them explain relationships, they spent much time developing formulas and equations. As a result, the Greeks used their adjective mathematikos, meaning “eager to learn,” to name this new science. Mathematikos itself was a derivative of the Greek verb manthanein, “to learn.”

It was Archimedes, the renowned Greek mathematician, who first calculated the approximate value of π, the symbol known as “pi” that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter as 3.14159265.

Medicine

Meaning “the science of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease” or “an agent used to treat disease or injury,” “medicine” traces its roots to the Latin medicina. Medicina, in turn, can be traced to the Latin verb mederi, meaning “to heal.”

Physician

Just one of many medical terms that traces its roots to Greek and Latin words, “physician” comes from the Greek noun physis, meaning “nature,” which in turn is a derivative of the Greek verb phyein, meaning “to produce” or “to become.” Doctor is actually a Latin word, meaning “teacher.” It comes from the Latin verb docere, “to teach.” The status of a physician in ancient Greece was little more than a skilled craftsman. Physicians moved from town to town with their hired assistants.

Plague

“Plague” traces its roots to the Greek noun plaga, meaning “a blow.” Latin adopted the word and added the meaning “wound.” Today, a plague is a highly infectious, generally fatal, disease.

The Black Death was a plague that reached Genoa, Italy, on New Year’s Eve 1347 and then spread across Europe and into England, Wales, Ireland, and parts of Scandinavia before entering Russia in 1353. It then spread into portions of Asia. Overall, the Black Death killed anywhere from one-third to one-half of all people living in these areas.

Planets

Ancient Roman astronomers named the five planets that they could see after their main gods (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). Jupiter, the king of the gods, was used for the largest planet. Saturn, the god of agriculture and civilization, represents the second largest planet. The dry, red planet, is named after Mars, the god of war. The smallest and fastest moving planet is named for Mercury, the messenger god. The brightest planet is named for Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Since the invention of the telescope in the early 1600s, three more planets were discovered and astronomers decided to follow tradition by naming them after Roman gods. The coldest, smallest, and farthest removed from the sun is named for Pluto, the god of the underworld. Uranus and Neptune are known as the “giant twins.” Only Jupiter and Saturn are larger in diameter and mass. Uranus is named for the god of the heavens and grandfather of Jupiter. Neptune is named for the powerful god of the seas.

Plunge

To the ancient Romans, a piece of lead being thrown into the water made a sound like “plumbum.” As a result, they called lead plumbum. Scientists later used Pb, the abbreviated form of this word, as the chemical symbol for lead. In Medieval Latin, the verb plumbicare described the act of lowering a lead ball into the water to check the depth. Plumbicare entered French as plongier, and is the direct root of “plunge.”

Solstice

Twice a year, once in the Southern and once in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is at its farthest distance from the equator. This is called the solstice. During these times, the sun appears to stand still in its southward and northward motion. Two Latin words were used to form “solstice”—sol (“sun”) and sistere (“to stand”). In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs about June 21 and the winter solstice about December 21.

The equator divides the earth into the Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere, with the United States in the latter. When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa.

Tantalum

In 1814, when scientists discussed what name would best suit a new element found in various minerals, “tantalum” was chosen. The reason: The element had proved “tantalizing” to those working with it because it was difficult to isolate and to extract from the minerals. “Tantalize” means “to tease or disappoint by promising or showing something desirable and then withholding it.” It traces its origins to the mythological Greek figure Tantalus, whose punishment in the underworld was to have food and drink kept just out of reach. See also tantalize.