Treponeme

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of spirally-shaped bacterium that causes various diseases, notably syphilis
2. A genus of bacteria characterized by their helical structure, responsible for certain infections in humans
3. A corkscrew-shaped microorganism associated with diseases like Lyme disease, existing in a specific family of bacteria

Etymology: Treponeme comes from modern Latin, and its making is a neat piece of scientific wordplay. In 1905, the zoologists Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann identified the bacterium that causes syphilis and named it "Treponema pallidum", the pale turning-thread. The first element is the Greek "trepein", "to turn", which is also the source of "trope" and "tropism", and the second is the Greek "nema", "thread", as in "nematode". The genus name was built from these pieces, and the singular "treponeme" was then formed from it in English. The organism's shape is the whole point. Under the microscope these bacteria are slender, tightly coiled spirals that rotate and wriggle, which is why a turning thread was the natural image. Many of the spirochetes were later grouped with the genus Treponema, and it is a general term for members of that group rather than a single species. The Lyme disease connection is more recent: the bacterium "Borrelia burgdorferi" is a spirochete, but it belongs to a different genus, so it is not a treponeme in the strict sense.