Did you know you use a Taíno Indian word every day on the job?

[JoseQuinones]

Hey everybody,

The other day some of my fellow nurdses (we call ourselves that 'cause we're nerds) got into a debate about the word guiac. Someone said it came from Latin, I figured it came from Greek. We hauled out the medical dictionary and it says:

1525-35;

The Taíno were the original natives that inhabited Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and many of the Caribbean islands. Most of us in the Caribbean have at least some descendence from them, and they are iconically honored here something like the First Peoples in the States and Canada. They were pretty much wiped out by Columbus and Ponce de León, but not before contributing such words as hurricane, barbecue, hammock, canoe, cay, guava, potato, savannah, and many, many more common words.

So the next time the doctor sends you in to grab some poo for a guaic test, remember the Taíno.

Any other medical terminology you can think of that comes from a language other than Latin/Greek?