Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Endometrium
/ˌɛndoʊˈmiːtriəm/noun
The lining of the uterus, built up and shed with each menstrual cycle.
The Greek roots
ἔνδον
éndon
within, inside
μήτρα
mḗtra
womb
Literally: “inside the womb”
The story of the word
Mḗtra is womb, from mḗtēr, mother, so the family relation is folded into the anatomy. Endometriosis is the same tissue growing where it should not, a condition affecting roughly one woman in ten of reproductive age and still taking years, on average, to name. The muscular wall outside it is the myometrium, from mŷs, muscle.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
endometriosismyometriumendoscope
In a sentence
The scan measures endometrium thickness to time the transfer.