cranium
KRAY-nee-uhm · noun
Ancient GreekLatinEnglish
Origin
Cranium comes from Medieval Latin crānium, meaning skull, which itself was borrowed from Ancient Greek κρᾱνίον (krāníon, "skull").
Journey
The word passed from Greek into Medieval Latin with its meaning intact, then into English still meaning skull.
Related words
Its structure breaks down simply as crani- plus the noun ending -um, a pattern shared by other Latin-derived anatomical terms.
More words
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