Pneumonocyte

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A lung cell that plays a vital role in transferring oxygen and carbon dioxide during respiration
2. A specialized cell in lung tissue that facilitates the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between air and blood
3. A cell type found in the alveoli that enables respiration by allowing oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to exit the bloodstream

Etymology: Pneumonocyte is a modern scientific coinage, built from two Greek-derived pieces: "pneumono-", from Greek "pneumon", meaning lung, and "-cyte", from Greek "kytos", meaning hollow vessel or cell. The combination describes a cell belonging to the lung, and the term belongs to the vocabulary of microscopic anatomy rather than to ancient medicine. Ancient Greek physicians had no concept of such a cell, so the word's meaning rests entirely on the later scientific labelling of tissue types. The "-cyte" ending is the standard suffix for cell types in biology, appearing in words such as erythrocyte and lymphocyte. Attaching "pneumono-" to it follows the same pattern used to name cells by the organ they belong to. The word therefore does no more than state its own parts: a lung cell, specified in this case as the type that handles gas exchange between air and blood.

Synonyms: alveolar cell, lung cell