Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Streptococcus
/ˌstrɛptəˈkɒkəs/noun
A genus of spherical bacteria that grow in chains.
The Greek roots
στρεπτός
streptós
twisted, pliant
κόκκος
kókkos
grain, berry
Literally: “twisted berry”
The story of the word
Theodor Billroth coined it in the 1870s for cocci that grow in twisting chains rather than the grape-like clumps he called staphylococcus. Kokkos was the kermes berry crushed for scarlet dye, so the name promises something round and very small. Streptomycin, isolated in 1943, takes the same first half from the twisting filaments of the soil bacterium that makes it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
staphylococcusstreptomycingonococcuscoccus
In a sentence
The swab came back positive for streptococcus, so the sore throat got antibiotics after all.