Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Epididymis
/ˌɛpɪˈdɪdɪmɪs/noun
The coiled tube lying against each testicle where sperm mature and are stored.
The Greek roots
ἐπί
epí
upon, over
δίδυμοι
dídymoi
twins, testicles
Literally: “upon the twins”
The story of the word
δίδυμοι meant twins, and Greek used it as the decent word for the testicles, so the anatomical name says only what sits on top of them. The term is credited to Herophilus of Chalcedon, who dissected human bodies in Alexandria in the third century BC. Uncoiled, the human epididymis runs to about six metres. The same word names the apostle Thomas, glossed in John's gospel as Didymus, the Twin.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → New Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
epidemicepicentredidymiumepidermis
In a sentence
The scan showed a cyst on the epididymis, harmless but uncomfortable.