Etymology

mesoplastron

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Today it means: either of a pair of transverse hexagonal bones in a turtle that lie between the hyoplastral and hypoplastral bones Full definition →

French mésoplastron
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The story

  1. French · borrowed frommésoplastron
  2. English todaymesoplastron

Borrowed in 1888 from French mésoplastron, ultimately from German Mesoplastron, coined by Karl Alfred von Zittel in 1877 as meso- + plastron. Superseded the earlier mesosternum, a nominalised form of the adjective mesosternal, coined by Richard Owen in 1853. The prefix is from Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos, “middle”), in reference to its position between the hyoplastron and the hypoplastron.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.