When John Kerr was here he a few years ago, he pronounced it apo-tosis (apo -
like apoprotein and -tosis like mitosis). Seems to reason that since he named
it, his pronunciation should be used.
David W. Voehringer
Department of Experimental Radiotherapy
Univ. of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Bvld.
Houston, Tx. 77030
(713) 792-3797
>>So how do you pronounce apoptosis? Is it:
>The word derives from the greek roots "apo" and "ptosis". ("Apo" meaning
>away from, and "ptosis" means fall, or droop. The word originally was
>coined with the annual falling of the leaves in mind, as an example of
>programmed cell death, although I think it's now known that this actually
>isn't a case of classic apoptosis.)
>The "p" in "ptosis" is silent--compare "pterodactyl", for example--and the
>original suggestion was that therefore the second "p" in "apoptosis"
>should be silent: "apo-tosis". I believe that the guy who coined the word
>(Andrew Wiley, I think? -Or perhaps Wiley in cooperation with a classics
>professor at Cambridge) pronounces it without the "p". There are a
>number of examples which support this pronunciation, and it's the way I
>personally pronouce it. Another advantage of the silent "p" is the snob
>appeal, of course; it shows you're a thoughtful and literate scientist
>who is deeply concerned about the important things in life, like classical
>greek.
>Over the last couple of years, though, there has been a mild controversy
>on this in the letters column of Nature, and unfortunately for the
>silent-p theory, one of the letters to Nature pointed out that the word
>"helicopter", by that reasoning, should be pronounced "helico-ter", since
>of course the "pter" is derived from the greek for wing, which has a
>silent "p". I find this a pretty convincing argument, and have stopped
>sneering as much when I hear the "apop-tosis" pronunciation--but I'm
>still sticking with the silent "p".
>I also had a mild discussion on the pronunciation of the word with Brian
>Leber, at McMaster University, who firmly put me in my place by observing
>that the pronunciation depended on whether you were using New or Old
>Classic Greek. I nodded thoughtfully, stroked my chin, and scurried away
>as soon as possible. I'm still not quite sure if he was bluffing or not.
>Ian
>--
> Ian York (iayork at panix.com) <http://www.panix.com/~iayork/>
> "-but as he was a York, I am rather inclined to suppose him a
> very respectable Man." -Jane Austen, The History of England
David W. Voehringer
Department of Experimental Radiotherapy
Univ. of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Bvld.
Houston, Tx. 77030
(713) 792-3797
