Exocrine

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A classification of glands that release their products to the outside of the body via ducts, affecting nearby surfaces and environments
2. Relating to glands that transport secretions externally rather than directly into the bloodstream, playing a key role in various physiological processes
3. A type of glandular system characterized by the secretion of substances through ducts to external sites rather than into the circulatory system

Etymology: The key to "exocrine" is that it was coined in the 1900s from two Greek roots, not inherited from the ancient world. "Exo-" comes from Greek "exō," meaning "outside," and "-crine" comes from Greek "krinein," meaning "to separate" or "to secrete." Physiologists put these together to name glands that send their secretions outward, through ducts, rather than into the bloodstream. The contrast term was built the same way. "Endocrine," from Greek "endon" ("within"), was coined around the same time to describe glands that release hormones directly into the blood. Ernest Starling, a British physiologist, introduced "hormone" in 1905, and the pairing of "endocrine" and "exocrine" grew out of that early twentieth-century work on glandular secretion. The word is a technical coinage with a plain construction, so its value lies in the logic of the pair: one term marks what leaves the body's tissues by a channel, and the other marks what travels inside the bloodstream.

Synonyms: secreting externally

Antonyms: endocrine