epithelium

From New Latin epithēlium.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɛpɪˈθiːlɪəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːliəm

epithelium (countable and uncountable, plural epitheliums or epithelia)

1. (anatomy) A membranous tissue composed of one or more layers of cells which forms the covering of most internal and external surfaces of the body and its organs: internally including the lining of vessels and other small cavities, and externally being the skin.

   Synonym: epithelial tissue

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 25:

     the passenger's roving eyes paused for a moment as he listened inwardly to a nether itch, which he supposed to be (correctly, thank Log) only a minor irritation of the epithelium.

   • 2014 May 30, Victor Kuete, Toxicological Survey of African Medicinal Plants, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 505:

     The sap of this species was able to cause loss of corneal epithelium 16 h after direct exposure to the sap in a 60-year-old male.

• endothelium
• urothelium

• thelarche
• thelion
• thelitis
• thelium

• epidermis

Introduced by Frederik Ruysch in the 18th century, originally referring to the covering of small "nipples" of tissue on the lip.^[1] Initially a first-declension noun epithēlia, from Ancient Greek ἐπι- (epi-, “on, atop”) +‎ Ancient Greek θηλή (thēlḗ, “nipple”) +‎ -ia; the nominative singular was later reinterpreted as a second-declension neuter plural.^[2]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɛ.pɪˈtʰeː.li.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [e.piˈt̪ɛː.li.um]

epithēlium n (genitive epithēliī); second declension

1. (New Latin, anatomy) epithelium

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• “epithelium, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2024.