• Question: what is the greek name for the brain

    Asked by jack to Adrian, Iroise, Joe, Rachel, Ria on 15 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Joe Bathelt

      Joe Bathelt answered on 15 Nov 2016:

      Sorry, I was mistaken earlier. The word is actually Latin. It’s ‘cerebrum’, which means brain and is nowadays used to refer to the entire brain minus the brainstem and cerebellum.

    • Photo: Ria Vaportzis

      Ria Vaportzis answered on 15 Nov 2016:

      There are two words for the brain in Greek. The most commonly used is ‘mialo’ with the accent on ‘o’. There’s also ‘egkefalos’ with the accent on ‘e’ and that’s where the word ‘encephalus’ comes from. This word is a bit more scientific and it’s the first part of medical words such as encephalogram, encephalopathy, etc

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