Etymology

punctum saliens

Today it means: The primordial heart in an embryo, appearing as a throbbing point. Full definition →

Latin punctum saliēns
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · borrowed frompunctum saliēns“leaping point”
  2. English todaypunctum saliens

Borrowed from Latin punctum saliēns (“leaping point”), attributed to Volcher Coiter or Ulysses Aldrovandi, after a Latin translation of Aristotle's History of Animals (book 6, part 3).

Words from the same roots

Latinpunctum saliēns all →

salient

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.