English
bacillus
Bacillus comes from Latin bacillus ‘little staff, wand’, and goes back to baculum.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbaculum‘stick, staff, walking stick’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEbacillus‘little staff, wand’diminutive of baculum
- Englishearliest quotation 1895same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbaculum‘stick, staff, walking stick’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEbacillus‘little staff, wand’diminutive of baculum
- Englishearliest quotation 1895same form
Earliest quotation: 1895, H. G. Wells: “'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide…”
Linked words
through Latin baculum ‘stick, staff, walking stick’
Today it means
noun Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming aerobic bacteria in the genus Bacillus, some of which cause disease.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin baculum / bacillus