Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Biomechanics
/ˌbaɪoʊmɪˈkænɪks/noun
The study of living bodies as mechanical systems of levers, forces and loads.
The Greek roots
βίος
bíos
life
μηχανή
mēkhanḗ
device, contrivance
Literally: “life machinery”
The story of the word
μηχανή was a contrivance, and in the theatre the crane that swung a god above the stage, which is where deus ex machina comes from. Giovanni Borelli did the work long before the word existed: his De Motu Animalium, published in 1680, treated muscle and bone as levers and calculated the forces. The compound is twentieth century. Machine, machination and mechanic all trace back to the Doric form μαχανά.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
machinemechanicmachinationbiology
In a sentence
The biomechanics team worked out that his shoulder was failing on the follow-through, not the delivery.