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Origin and history of exo-

exo-

word-forming element in words of Greek origin meaning "outer, outside, outer part," used from mid-19c. in scientific words (such as exoskeleton), from Greek exō (adv.) "outside," related to ex (prep.) "out of" (see ex-).

also from mid-19c.

Entries linking to exo-

exoskeleton(n.)

in zoology, "any hardened external structure," as the shells of crustaceans or the scales and plates of fishes and reptiles, especially when it is of the nature of bone, 1841, from exo- + skeleton. Said to have been introduced by English anatomist Richard Owen. Related: Exoskeletal.

Exocet(n.)

1970, proprietary name of a rocket-propelled short-range guided missile, trademarked 1970 by Société Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale, from French exocet "flying fish" (16c.), from Latin exocoetus, from Greek exokoitos "sleeping fish, fish that sleeps upon the beach," from exō "outside" (see exo-) + koitos "bed."

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exotic
1590s, "belonging to another country," from French exotique (16c.) and directly from Latin exoticus, from Greek exotikos "foreign," literally "from the outside," from exo "outside" (see exo-). Sense of "unusual, strange" in English first recorded 1620s, from notion of "alien, out
sacrifice
late 13c., "the offering of something (especially a life) to a deity as an act of propitiation, homage, etc.;" mid-14c., "that which is offered (to a deity) in sacrifice," from Old French sacrifise "sacrifice, offering" (12c.), from Latin sacrificium, from sacrificus "performing
diligent
"constant in effort to accomplish what is undertaken," mid-14c., from Old French diligent (14c.) and directly from Latin diligentem (nominative diligens) "attentive, assiduous, careful," present-participle adjective from diligere "single out, value highly, esteem, prize, love; as
picnic
1748 (in Chesterfield's "Letters"), but the thing itself apparently was rare before c. 1800 as an English institution [OED]; it originally meant "a fashionable social affair (not necessarily out of doors) in which every partaker contributed something to the general table;" from F
gobbledygook
also gobbledegook, "the overinvolved, pompous talk of officialdom" [Klein], 1944, American English, first used by Texas politician Maury Maverick (1895-1954), a grandson of the inspiration for maverick and chairman of U.S. Smaller War Plants Corporation during World War II, in a
disposition
late 14c., disposicioun, "ordering, management, a setting in order, arrangement," also "tendency of mind, aptitude, inclination," from Old French disposicion (12c.) "arrangement, order; mood, state of mind" and directly from Latin dispositionem (nominative dispositio) "arrangemen
gymnasium
1590s, "place of exercise," from Latin gymnasium "school for gymnastics," from Greek gymnasion "public place where athletic exercises are practiced; gymnastics school," in plural, "bodily exercises," from gymnazein "to exercise or train," literally or figuratively, literally "to
physiology
1560s, "study and description of natural objects, natural philosophy" (a sense now obsolete), from French physiologie (16c.) or directly from Latin physiologia "natural science, study of nature," from Greek physiologia "natural science, inquiry into nature," from physios "nature"
entertain
late 15c., "to keep up, maintain, to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind," from Old French entretenir "hold together, stick together, support" (12c.), from entre- "among" (from Latin inter; see inter-) + tenir "to hold" (from Latin tenere, from PIE root *ten- "to stretch").
pistachio
1590s, "nut of the pistachio tree," from Italian pistacchio, from Latin pistacium "pistachio nut," from Greek pistakion "pistachio nut," from pistakē "pistachio tree," from Persian pistah "pistachio." Borrowed earlier in English as pystace, pistace (mid-15c.), from Old French pis

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