Table 2.

Word of origin, meanings, and etymological comments for some common microorganisms’ names based upon microscopic appearance.

S. No.	Name of microorganism	Word of origin with English meanings	Etymological comments
1	Bacillus	Diminutive of Latin baculus meaning Little Rod/ wand	The square edges of bacillus look like a wand
2	Clostridium	Greek klostír for spindle or spinner	Central or subterminal spore gives pathogen a spindle stick appearance
3	Corynebacterium	Ancient Greek korúnē for club or mace	The resemblance of bacteria to baseball club
4	Campylobacter	Greek kampulos means bent	Bacilli curved at ends
5	Helicobacter	Ancient Greek hélix means a spiral shape	The spiral appearance of the bacterium
6	Chlamydia	Greek khlamys for short mantle	The incorrect assumption that this bacteria cloaks the nucleus of infected cells (Byrne 2003)
7	Sporothrix	Ancient Greek sporá for seed and thríx for hair	The arrangement of spores along the hyphae likened to seeds along a hair
8	Cryptococcus	Greek krypto (hidden), kokkos (berry)	The large capsule surrounding the yeast cell
9	Pneumocystis	Ancient Greek pneúmōn for lungs and kústis for bladder or pouch	The predilection of organisms’ cysts for lung tissues
10	Cryptosporidium	Greek krypto for hidden and sporidium for small spore	Very small oocysts of parasites usually not visible except Ziehl Neelsen Staining