Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Lobe
/loʊb/noun
A rounded, clearly divided part of an organ or a leaf.
The Greek roots
λοβός
lobós
earlobe, pod
Literally: “a rounded hanging part”
Follow a root:λοβός3 words
The story of the word
λοβός covered the lobe of the ear, the lobe of the liver and the pod of a bean, anything rounded that hangs. Medical Latin took it as lobus, and English had lobe by the early 1400s, meaning the ear. The lobes of the brain and the lungs were named later on the same principle, a division you can see the edge of. Lobotomy, coined in 1936, is a cut through one of them.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- early 15th century
Same family
lobotomylobeliaglobe
In a sentence
The stroke had affected the left frontal lobe.
She wore a single pearl in each lobe.