Show S 0 40 H LJ ow w IT STA STARTER RTE D I 1 tf JEAN EAN NEWTON why do we call it tont HE moment we hear the word THE skeleton most of us immediately think of the supporting framework of the body of a human being or some animal the word has of course achieved a broader usage in the fields of literature and architecture where it retains the sense of a central supporting system but arlly and as is 13 perfectly obvious from its derivation it refers to the spinal framework of the human or animal system and very curiously does it come by this meaning the word skeleton itself Is derived from the greek skeleton tos designating dried up in other words the ancient greeks could not think of anything more dried up than a mummy so when they wanted to express that particular degree of ossification or dryness they used the word we know as skeleton from this original sense the word acquired the meaning it has today as the bony system of the body without involving consciously the thought of its being dried up C i dell bell syndicate service |