Etymology

microbacterium

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Today it means: Any bacterium of the Microbacterium genus. Full definition →

English bacterium ← New Latin bactērium ← Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mey-der.?
  2. Ancient Greekμῑκρός (mīkrós)
  3. Ancient Greekμῑκρο- (mīkro-)
  4. Englishmicro-
  5. Ancient Greekβακτηρία (baktēría)
  6. Ancient Greekβακτήριον (baktḗrion)
  7. New Latinbactērium
  8. Englishbacterium
  9. English todaymicrobacterium

From micro- + bacterium.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.