Apyrenia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of a cell, such as a red blood cell, that lacks a nucleus entirely
2. A state in which a cell has no nucleus, as seen in mature mammalian erythrocytes
3. Lacking a cell nucleus, a condition found in certain blood cells and some microorganisms

Etymology: "Apyrenia" is built entirely from Greek parts, with "a-" meaning "without" and "pyren" meaning "stone" or "kernel," the Greek word that gave English "pyrene," a term for a fruit stone. Scientists applied the Greek "pyrēn" to the cell nucleus in the nineteenth century, because the nucleus sits at the centre of a cell much as a stone sits inside a fruit. The suffix "-ia" marks a state or condition, so the whole term describes the state of having no nucleus. The word is a modern technical coinage from classical roots, not a term ancient Greek writers used for anything in biology. Its earliest uses in English-language science date to around the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, when microscopists were distinguishing cells with nuclei from those without, such as mature mammalian red blood cells. The coinage is a precise, deliberate formation, and its meaning has stayed close to its parts.