A person dear to my heart is currently in the throes of prodromal labor. Its common synonym, false labor, is something of a misnomer, because it’s not a mere fake out; it’s a precursor. Prodromal is used for any early stage of a medical condition, for example, the headache or mild nausea that might precede a cold or flu. It’s not false. It’s just early.
Not surprisingly, the prefix pro means “before.” The Greek root of –dromal means “race” or “course,” so precursor is an almost literal synonym. In fact, pregnancy’s end stages, from confusing contractions, to aching joints, to fatigue and sleeping disturbances, all the way to true labor and childbirth, might well be considered an arduous course the mother must run. Prodromal labor is an early part of the race.
Speaking of courses, the Greek used dromos to create hippodromos, a course for horses. Ruins of Greek hippodromes survive on Delos, at Delphi, and in Alexandria, among other places. Because they were built to accommodate an audience, the term hippodrome came to mean theater or auditorium. Cleveland’s Hippodrome theater opened on Euclid Avenue in 1907 and was at the time the world’s second largest theater, holding over 3,000 spectators. No horses allowed.
Hippos, too, would be banned from the premises. As you probably know, hippopotamus combines the Greek words for horse and river. Hippos, then, were river horses, named by apparently nearsighted Europeans. In Swahili, they answer to kiboko. The Zulu term invubu means “mixed up” or “combined,” presumably because of hippos’ confusion as to whether they’re land animals or water animals.
The root potamus did not give our Potomac River its name. which is of Algonquin origin, but it helped name Mesopotamia. That land is between (meso-) rivers: the Tigris and Euphrates. Meso- appears in many English words, including mesosaur, a middle-sized dinosaur.
Dinosaur itself means “awesome/terrible lizard.” One of the most impressive dinosaur names is the not medium-sized acrocanthosaurus, meaning “high-spined lizard.” Acro-, meaning “high,” can be seen in words such as acrobat, acrophobia, and Acropolis.
Like pregnancy, this discourse must come to an end, although once we get started on dinosaur names it could go on endlessly. (Ask my grandson.) Pregnancies seem short in retrospect, but at the time seem like racing an endless course, like connecting one word with the next and the next, kind of like a palindrome, running forward and back .
Of course!