Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Epiglottis
/ˌɛpɪˈɡlɑtɪs/noun
The flap of cartilage that folds over the windpipe during swallowing.
The Greek roots
ἐπί
epí
upon, over
γλωττίς
glōttís
mouthpiece of a pipe
Literally: “over the reed-piece”
The story of the word
γλωττίς was the reed mouthpiece of the aulos, the double pipe, a small vibrating tongue in a tube. Anatomists borrowed it for the slit between the vocal folds because it does the same job, and the epiglottis is the lid that drops over it. Swallowing tips that lid down and shuts the airway, which is why nobody can breathe and swallow in the same instant. γλῶττα is the Attic form of γλῶσσα, tongue, and gives gloss, glossary and polyglot.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
glottispolyglotglossaryepiglottitis
In a sentence
A swollen epiglottis can close a child's airway in hours, which is why the vaccine mattered so much.