Apoptosis

[Dr. Goodword]

• apoptosis •

Pronunciation: : ê-pahp-to-sis • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (No plural)

Meaning: Genetically programmed cell death, sometimes called 'cell suicide', which plays an important role in shaping the distinct forms of tissues in living organisms.

Notes: The term has been used more broadly in biology since Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz and John E. Sulston received the 2002 Nobel Prize for their research of this process. The adjective is apoptotic [æ-pêp-tah-tik] and the adverb, apoptotically.

In Play: The loss of a tadpole's tail as it becomes a frog is accomplished by apoptosis, the death of those cells making up the tail. Apoptosis also accounts for the formation of the fingers and toes of a human fetus: they are shaped by the death of cells between them as the fetus develops.

Word History: Today's word is a simple transliteration of Greek apoptosis "falling off" from apoptein "to fall off", a verb based on apo- "from" + piptein "to fall." The ultimate root here is PIE pet-/pot-/pt-, which shows up in both English feather and hippopotamus! It is associated with flying and turns up in Russian pt-ica "bird" and the name of the dinosaur with the fingers on its wings, the pterodactyl, from Greek pteron "feather, wing" and daktylos "finger".

[Slava]

The hippopotamus relation must be to the hippo part. That's where the falling off is done, right?

[damoge]

I assumed it was the pot that one would fall off of.

[bnjtokyo]

Etymonline says it's the "potamos" -- "rushing river" part. "Potamos" is Greek for "river" and from the PIE-root "*pet" "to rush, to fly." The "hippo" part is from Greek "hippos" "horse" and the PIE-root is "*ekwo-."
Other fairly common words from the "hippo-" part are Hippocrates, the Greek physician ("horse + power"), hippodrome (https://www.alphadictionary.com/goodwor ... hippodrome); hippocampus (horse + sea monster).
And looking into the descendants from "*ekwo-" could be interesting as I have heard it said that the first people to spread the Indo-European language where perhaps also the people who domesticated the horse and set the horse before the cart. These developments gave them a competitive advantage that allowed them to expand north, south, east and west and the languages descended from PIE to be spoken far and wide.
Etymonline has this to say about "ekwo-": "hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit açva-, Avestan aspa-, Greek hippos, Latin equus, Old Irish ech, Old Church Slavonic ehu-, Old English eoh, Gothic aihwa- all meaning "horse.""

[David Myer]

Perhaps also hipporay as in hip-hipporay? (Sorry)

But very interesting bnj. I wonder if the ekwa of horse and akwa of water in all these languages might be related originally?

But back to Apoptosis, I wonder if the diminishing brain capacity as we age is really a form of apoptosis? I'm not sure that this is a genetically programmed cell death (a sort of deliberate, built-in obsolescence as Apple phones seem to have), so it may not qualify.