English
mastoid
Mastoid comes from New Latin mastoīdēs ‘Shaped like a breast’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- ‘to be wet, to become wet’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₂d-‘to be wet, to become wet’root as named
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμᾰστός‘a woman's breast’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEμᾰστοειδήςmăstoeidḗs‘like a breast’
- New Latinc. 1500–1900mastoīdēs‘Shaped like a breast’
- Englishearliest quotation 1899mastoid
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₂d-‘to be wet, to become wet’root as named
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμᾰστός‘a woman's breast’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEμᾰστοειδήςmăstoeidḗs‘like a breast’
- New Latinc. 1500–1900mastoīdēs‘Shaped like a breast’
- Englishearliest quotation 1899mastoid
Earliest quotation: 1899, Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club: “Spores tetrahedral, paraphyses mastoid-claviform, scales smooth, entire.”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- ‘to be wet, to become wet’
meet, meat, mate, mod, moot, amadou, 12 more
through Ancient Greek μᾰστός ‘a woman's breast’
Today it means
adj Being the process of the temporal bone behind the ear.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- / mastoid