{"id":45680,"date":"2019-09-20T14:13:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T13:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=45680"},"modified":"2019-09-27T17:16:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T16:16:21","slug":"jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-thyme-and-thymus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/09\/20\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-thyme-and-thymus\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Thyme and thymus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thyme (genus <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thymus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), is the name given to a range of plants, members of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lamiaceae<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> family. [In Greek <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u03bb\u03ac\u03bc\u03b9\u03b1 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">means a gaping mouth, describing the shape of the flowers; lamia also meant a shark and the Lamia was a voracious monster.] <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thymus vulgaris<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or garden thyme, is an aromatic evergreen herb, primarily used for culinary purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-45681 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"715\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-1.jpg 965w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-1-768x434.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-1-640x361.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Greek word \u03b8\u1fe1\u03bc\u1f79\u03c2, the soul or spirit, also connoted courage, which some have suggested the plant inspired. A related verb, \u03b8\u1fe1\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, meant to anger or provoke. But it is the plant\u2019s scent that seems to dominate its etymology. Plato, in his dialogue <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/plato-cratylus\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cratylus<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, dealing with the question of whether words are arbitrarily constructed or are in some way related to the things they signify, connected \u03b8\u1fe1\u03bc\u1f79\u03c2 with a different verb, \u03b8\u03cd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, to burn or perform a sacrifice, a procedure commonly associated with the use of incense, or \u03b8\u1fe1\u03bc\u03b9\u1fb1\u03bc\u03b1. And \u03b8\u03cd\u03bf\u03bd was a type of scented tree. These Greek words are related to the Latin words tus or thus, incense, typically frankincense or olibanum, giving us thurible and thurifer, and fumus, smoke, giving us fume and fumes, fumigate, and perfume. Fumaric acid is from fumarin, an organic base found in fumitory (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fumaria officinalis<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), from the medieval Latin term \u201cfumus terrae\u201d, or \u201csmoke of the earth\u201d, because of the way in which it grew in great quantities, likened to smoke rising out of the earth; this gave rise to the name of the genus, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fumaria<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1724, Carolo Neuman, apothecary to the court of Berlin, studied a group of substances he called camphors, and isolated what he called Camphor thymi, camphor of thyme, from the plant. He described his findings in a paper titled \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1098\/rstl.1724.0061\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">De camphora<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d, published in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1724; 33(389): 321-32). We now call this phenolic substance, thymol.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-45682\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"702\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-2.jpg 786w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-2-300x126.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-2-768x322.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-2-640x269.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thymol has been used for many medical purposes. Celsus, for example, recommended a gargle containing a decoction of thyme, hyssop, or mint for paralysis of the tongue. In <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/botanical.com\/botanical\/mgmh\/mgmh.html\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Modern Herbal<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1931) Mrs Grieve said that garden thyme was used as an antiseptic, antispasmodic, tonic, and carminative. She recommended thyme tea for \u201carrest[ing] gastric fermentation\u201d and in cases of wind spasms and colic, for promoting sweating (\u201cperspiration\u201d) at the start of a cold, and in fevers. Oil of thyme she recommended as a rubefacient and counter-irritant in rheumatism. Culpeper, she wrote, described thyme as \u201ca noble strengthener of the lungs\u201d and recommended it for treating whooping cough, purging the body of phlegm, and as a remedy for shortness of breath. And Gerard said that it would cure sciatica and pains in the head and heal leprosy and the falling sickness. Thymol has also been used as a disinfectant and was at one time used to treat <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/11572211\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ankylostomiasis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carvacrol, a related compound found in thyme, is also found in oregano, to which it gives its characteristic aroma. Thymoxamine, whose International Nonproprietary Name (INN) is moxisylyte, also structurally related to thymol, is an alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist with vasodilatory activity. It has been used orally in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease, for example <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/22786498\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Raynaud\u2019s disease<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and by intracavernosal injection in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/27871959\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">erectile dysfunction<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45683\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-3.jpg 520w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-3-243x300.jpg 243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One might be tempted to assume that the thymus gland is etymologically related to thyme, perhaps because it is near the heart, as seen in this illustration from Gray\u2019s<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Anatomy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45684\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2019\/09\/Jeff-Aronson-thyme-fig-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"556\" height=\"319\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, this appears not to be the case. Another Greek word, \u03b8\u03cd\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2, similar to \u03b8\u1fe1\u03bc\u1f79\u03c2 but spelt and pronounced differently, meant a warty excrescence, typically anal or genital. Greek authors of the 2<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">nd<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> century, Rufus of Ephesus (c. 70\u2013110 AD), in his text \u03a0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76 \u1f40\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u1f77\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5 \u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u1f77\u03c9\u03bd (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Names of the Parts of the Human Body<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), and Galen (c. 130\u2013210 AD) in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">De Usu Partium<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, likened the thymus gland to such an excrescence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pyrimidine base thymine was originally obtained from calves\u2019 thymus glands in 1893 by Albrecht Kossel and Albert Neumann. It is now known to be one of the four bases in the molecular structure of DNA. Link thymine to the sugar deoxyribose and you get the nucleoside thymidine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thymosin alpha-1 was isolated from calf thymus by Allan Goldstein and colleagues in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/5230175\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1966<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. They described it as a \u201clymphocytopoietic factor\u201d. They did not comment on the fact that they characterized the activity of lymph node cells by measuring <sup>3<\/sup>H-thymidine uptake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_aronson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-32935\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_aronson.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"141\" height=\"174\" \/><\/a>Jeffrey Aronson<\/strong>\u00a0is a clinical pharmacologist, working in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford&#8217;s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is also president emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thyme (genus Thymus), is the name given to a range of plants, members of the Lamiaceae family. [In Greek \u03bb\u03ac\u03bc\u03b9\u03b1 means a gaping mouth, describing the shape of the flowers; [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/09\/20\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-thyme-and-thymus\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5762],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-aronsons-words"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . 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