Mastodawn

Court Cantrell does not comply Jun 20, 2024

Somebody hearted this post:

https://mastodon.social/@courtcan/112643131575002788

which brought it up in my notifications, and I got curious. I looked up the #etymology of "zygote" & found that it's a Greek word meaning "yoke." Ultimately, it's from a Proto-Indo-European word referring to the yoke used on cattle.

🤔

Further superficial research shows that the word was first used for a fertilized cell in the late 1800s. Guy named Richard Hertwig, near as I can tell.

1/2

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Court Cantrell does not comply

I'd like to ask him: why "yoke"? The word brings up an image of two tethered together, yes. But they still are separate organisms. You would never look at a pair of yoked oxen and think they are one being, even though they are pulling the load as one.

Instead, why not base the word for "fertilized cell" on συνδυασμός, meaning " two combined into one"? We could have a syndual instead of a zygote.

Just random thoughts. 😁

#TIL
#WordNerd
#IHeartLanguage
#IHeartWords
#languages