Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Eutherian
/juːˈθɪəriən/adjective
Belonging to the group of mammals whose young develop in the uterus nourished by a placenta.
The Greek roots
εὖ
eû
well, true
θηρίον
thēríon
wild beast
Literally: “true beast”
The story of the word
Coined by Thomas Huxley in 1880 to separate placental mammals from marsupials and the egg-laying monotremes. The eu- is doing quiet nineteenth-century work, implying that placental mammals are the proper kind. Thērion also lies under theriac, the ancient antidote against animal venom, which slowly became treacle.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
metatheriantherapsidtreacleeuphoria
In a sentence
Every eutherian from a shrew to a blue whale shares the same placental plan.
Australia's isolation left marsupials in niches eutherians fill elsewhere.