Organoid

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small, organ-like structure generated from stem cells in a laboratory setting that simulates key functions and organization of actual organs
2. A compact, artificial representation of biological tissue derived from cells that can imitate specific characteristics and activities of real organs
3. A miniature, lab-created structure resembling an organ which is formed from stem cells and replicates certain functions and characteristics of genuine organs

Etymology: Organoids are lab-grown miniature organs, and the name is a plain piece of Greek-based coinage: "organ" joined to "-oid," a suffix meaning "resembling." Its ancestor "organon" meant a tool or instrument, and it passed through Latin "organum" and Old French "organe" before reaching English as "organ," which by the Middle English period referred to a body part that performs a function. The sense of a bodily instrument carries over neatly into the modern word. The suffix "-oid" has a similar tidy lineage. It comes from Greek "eidos," meaning form or shape, which gave the adjectival ending "-eidēs," meaning "having the form of." English took the ending through Latin "-oīdēs" and the modern form "-oid," so words built with it, such as "humanoid" or "spheroid," describe things that look like something else. Put together, an organoid is literally something shaped like an organ. The name describes the form of the thing rather than its function, which is why it fits cells grown in a dish that copy the structure of a liver or kidney without being the real thing.