Nanovesicle

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tiny enclosed sac bounded by a thin membrane, typically used to carry molecules inside a cell or within biological or laboratory systems
2. An extremely small vesicle, a minute fluid-filled bubble enclosed by a lipid layer that transports or stores substances
3. A minuscule membrane-enclosed compartment, often engineered for drug delivery, that holds material in a sealed, bubble-like shell

Etymology: "Nanovesicle" is a compound built from "nano-", a prefix taken from the Greek "nanos," meaning "dwarf," and "vesicle," from the Latin "vesicula," a little bladder or blister. Together they describe a tiny membrane-bound sac, typically a fraction of the size of the cells that produce it. The prefix "nano-" was adopted in the scientific vocabulary of the metric system to mean one billionth, so a nanovesicle is measured on a scale far below the reach of an ordinary light microscope. The "vesicle" half carries the older sense: in anatomy and biology, a vesicle has long meant any small fluid-filled sac, from a blister on the skin to the compartments that cells use to carry material around inside themselves.