Plastic surgery is the fad of the era among celebrities today. The term ‘plastic’ comes from the Greek word ‘plastikos’ which means ‘to mould or shape’. Plastic surgeries using modern techniques gained popularity not until 20th century. Nevertheless, the idea has existed since ancient times. The history of surgical sciences credits the ancient Indian physician Sushruta as the first ‘surgeon’…
The name dinosaur is derived from two Greek words: deinos meaning ‘fearfully great’ and sauros meaning ‘lizard’. It was coined by the English anatomist Richard Owen in 1842. Owen recognized that the huge fossilized bones unearthed at several places in nineteenth-century England were markedly different from the bones of the other existing reptiles.
Progeria is derived from the Greek words pro meaning before and geria meaning old age. It is technically called the Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. It is a disease that causes a person to age faster than the norm. People with progeria do not survive beyond their teens. One in eight million people has this disease.
The diamond is the hardest substance known, and therefore unbreakable. The word ‘diamond’ is derived from adamas, a Greek word which means ‘unconquerable’. The word adamas was altered to the Latin and early French word diamant and to the English word ‘diamond’.
Demosthenes (384 BC–322 BC) was a famous Greek orator. He was also a politician who championed for democracy. As a child he used to stammer. He is known to have put pebbles in his mouth while speaking to overcome the problem of stammering.
