Etymology

synapse

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Today it means: The junction between the terminal of a neuron and either another neuron or a muscle or gland cell, over which nerve impulses pass. Full definition →

Ancient Greek σύναψις
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromσύναψις“conjunction”
  2. English todaysynapse

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek σύναψις (súnapsis, “conjunction”), from συνάπτω (sunáptō, “to clasp”). Introduced by neurophysiologist Charles Scott Sherrington.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.