Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Dermis
/ˈdɜːrmɪs/noun
The thick living layer of skin below the epidermis, holding the blood vessels, nerves and hair roots.
The Greek roots
δέρμα
dérma
skin, hide
Literally: “skin”
Follow a root:δέρμα11 words
The story of the word
A word made backwards. Epidermis reached English first, and 19th-century anatomists lopped the prefix off it to name the layer underneath, so dermis is a back-formation from a compound rather than a straight borrowing. In Greek δέρμα is a hide, the thing a butcher or a tanner handles.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1830s
Same family
epidermisdermatologytaxidermyhypodermic
In a sentence
A paper cut that bleeds has reached the dermis.