Pericardium

The story of the word

περικάρδιον is a plain description of something Greek anatomists could see and open: the thing around the heart. The sac is stiff, so fluid gathering inside it squeezes the heart rather than stretching to accommodate it, which is why tamponade is an emergency and not a curiosity. καρδία is cognate with Latin cor and with English heart, all three descended from one Indo-European root, and it supplies cardiac, tachycardia and myocardium.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → English

First recorded

16th century