Salpinx

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tubular structure in the body, particularly referring to the fallopian tube in females
2. A part of certain musical instruments, particularly in ancient Greek devices, shaped like a trumpet
3. An anatomical term for a canal or tube, primarily the one connecting the ovaries to the uterus in female anatomy

Etymology: The Greek word "salpinx" originally meant a war trumpet, a bronze instrument with a bright, piercing sound. Homer and the tragedians used it for the blast that called soldiers to battle, so the thing it named was a horn, not a body part. The anatomical sense came much later, when scholars writing in New Latin borrowed the Greek word for tubes in the body. Because the fallopian tube is shaped like a narrow horn opening toward the ovary, the old military name fit it well. English took the term from that New Latin usage, so the modern meaning is a metaphor that has kept the trumpet's tubular shape while losing its sound.

Synonyms: trumpet, horn