Still a little TMI for the delicate

[mellicious]

cryptorchidism
failure of the testis to descend into the scrotum

Now, I don't know about you, but "cryptorchidism" sounds to me like it might have something to do with funerals, but apparently "crypt" (like "occult") actually means "hidden" - which I didn't know - and "orchid" is the medical term for a testis, apparently due to its resemblance to an orchid root, so what you actually get is a fancy name for undescended testes. Go figure.

Or maybe it's the other way around, actually, and orchids were named because their roots look like testes? That's what the etymology site seems to be implying. That's even weirder, when you think about it.


(Some of you may be glad when I finish the internal organs and stop talking about guts and pelvic things. One more chapter - female reproduction - and I will mostly be done, at least until I get to all that same stuff again in anatomy.)

Comments

[anjea.livejournal.com]

The "crypt" prefix isn't so unusual when you think of words like cryptography or cryptograms.

[mmancuso.livejournal.com]

One wonders if female impersonators put them back to get them out of the way, or if the descent is from a place that closes up afterward. Hmmm.