The story
- Latin · learned borrowing frombacillus“little staff, wand”
- English todaybacillus
Learned borrowing from Latin bacillus (“little staff, wand”), diminutive of baculum (“stick, staff, walking stick”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
bacillus
Today it means: Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming aerobic bacteria in the genus Bacillus, some of which cause disease. Full definition →
Latin bacillus