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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

From Ancient Greek

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