Etymology

ethmoid

E1T1H4M3O1I1D2

Today it means: A light spongy cubical bone at the root of the nose, forming much of the walls of the nasal cavity and part of those of the orbits and having many perforations through which the olfactory nerves pass to the nose. Full definition →

French ethmoïde ← Ancient Greek ἠθμοειδής
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromἠθμοειδής“like a strainer, perforated”
  2. French · borrowed fromethmoïde
  3. English todayethmoid

Borrowing from French ethmoïde, from Ancient Greek ἠθμοειδής (ēthmoeidḗs, “like a strainer, perforated”), from ἠθμός (ēthmós, “strainer, sieve”) + -ειδής (-eidḗs, “-form, -like”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.