There’s a lovely pattern to these words, which come from astronomy:
| near | far | |
| perigee | apogee | (Earth) |
| perihelion | aphelion | (Sun) |
| perijove | apojove | (Jupiter) |
| perisaturnium | aposaturnium | (Saturn) |
| periapsis | apsis | (any body) |
The perigee, for example, is the nearest point to Earth on some orbit, and the apogee is the farthest point on such an orbit. (Thanks to Garth of perijove.com for pointing this out to me.) The apogee is also the peak of a trajectory, which is of course also the farthest point from Earth on an “orbitâ€; and metaphorically, the apogee can be the best point of something, like a career.
I didn’t recognize the peri- or apo- prefixes before this investigation, but there are lots of words that use them. Peri- is used a lot by anatomists to refer to areas close to something in the body—I read about the "perisylvian region" of the brain, which is adjacent to the Sylvian fold, one of the many folds of the brain. Apo- means “away,†generally, and here are some interesting uses:
| apostle | (one who is sent out, a messenger) |
| apotropaic | (something that turns away evil, as stone lions and gargoyles) |
| apostate | (one who stands away) |
| apocalypse | (literally, a revelation, or veil-away) |
Sadly I couldn't find any more pairs as in the first table.
That's cool. One of my favorite medical words is apoptosis, which is "programmed cell death". (Cancer is sometimes described as a failure of cells to undergo apoptosis, etc.) It's a slightly different bent on the prefix, I guess.
In nursing "peri-" is usually used to refer to the taint in some way: perineal, peri-wash, peri-care.
Perhaps you'd appreciate this line from Wikipedia's "perineum" article: "It has been suggested that Taint (slang) be merged into this article or section." (nsfw) What do you think?
Hey, apoptosis is interesting! My über-lazy internet research skills did not turn up an etymology, so I don't know what the "ptosis" part is. But I'll be the apo- is marking our "away" meaning and not the other one, which is an intensifier in Greek.
Also, apoptosis led me to blebbing." That be funny!
I think it's high time "taint" made its way into the medical nomenclature.
Now that you mention it, ptosis is its own thing...it means drooping eyelids. Perhaps the word has to do with things becoming amorphous or bulging, and that's how it got applied to cell lysis? I'll have my people look into it.
Ok, "ptosis" officially means falling, so you could assert that apoptosis is "falling away". Maybe as in, the cell membrane falls away? A bit poetic, perhaps, but it works.
Sounds pretty good. Looking at these toes I might say, "something failed to fall away here!"