Etymology

cerumen

C3E1R1U1M3E1N1

Today it means: Earwax. Full definition →

Medieval Latin caerūmen
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The story

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromcaerūmen
  2. English todaycerumen

From Medieval Latin caerūmen, from cera + -men. The appearance of the u is unexplained, but may have been influenced by words like albūmen and bitūmen.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.