Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Amnion
/ˈæmniɒn/noun
The innermost membrane enclosing an unborn animal and its fluid.
The Greek roots
ἀμνίον
amníon
bowl for sacrificial blood
Literally: “sacrificial blood bowl”
Follow a root:ἀμνίον1 word
The story of the word
The Greek word named the bowl held under the throat of a sacrificial victim to catch the blood, and anatomists moved it to the sac holding the fluid around a fetus. Ancient writers linked it to amnós, lamb, a connection modern etymologists treat with suspicion. Amniocentesis, drawing that fluid off through a needle, has been in clinical use since the 1950s.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
amnioticamniocentesisamniote
In a sentence
The amnion had ruptured hours before, which explained the reading.