Myocardium

The story of the word

μῦς meant mouse first and muscle second. The Romans made the same joke independently with musculus, a little mouse, apparently because a flexing bicep moves under the skin like something burrowing. Anatomists built the modern term in the nineteenth century for the middle of three layers, with endocardium lining the chambers and pericardium wrapping the outside. A myocardial infarction is that middle layer dying because a coronary artery stopped feeding it.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English

First recorded

19th century