Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Nephron
/ˈnɛfrɒn/noun
The microscopic filtering unit of the kidney, consisting of a glomerulus and its tubule.
The Greek roots
νεφρός
nephrós
kidney
Literally: “little kidney”
Follow a root:νεφρός5 words
The story of the word
Each human kidney holds around a million of these, so the organ is really a bundle of filters working in parallel, and the name treats one of them as a kidney in miniature. English kept both the Greek and the Latin word for the organ, which is why the specialist is a nephrologist while the artery is renal and the gland on top is adrenal. Greek νεφρός also gave the surgical vocabulary its nephrectomy and nephritis.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → medical coinage → English
Same family
nephrologynephritisnephrectomy
In a sentence
Blood pressure drugs act at different points along the nephron.