Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Eosinophil
/ˌiːəˈsɪnəfɪl/noun
A white blood cell active in allergic reactions and parasite defence, named for the red dye its granules absorb.
The Greek roots
Ἠώς
Ēṓs
dawn, the dawn goddess
φίλος
phílos
loving, fond of
Literally: “dawn-loving”
The story of the word
The dye came first. Eosin, a rose-red stain, was named in 1873 after Eos, whose rosy fingers open so many mornings in Homer. Paul Ehrlich stained blood films with it in 1879, saw one class of cell drink it up and turn bright pink, and called those cells dawn-lovers. Ἠώς is the same word as Latin Aurora and as English east, the direction the light comes from.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1880s
Same family
eosinphilosophyhaemophiliaeast
In a sentence
A raised eosinophil count sent them looking for a parasite rather than a bacterium.