Translation
skull
Word origin
From Greek kranion, skull, which reached Esperanto through the Latin anatomical cranium. The same root sits inside migraine, by way of hemicrania, a pain in half the head.
- Origin
- Greek, via Latin
- Root
- kranion
- English cognates
- cranium, cranial, migraine
Examples
.
The skull protects the brain.
.
They found an old skull under the stones.
.
The doctor showed us the bones of the skull.
There is no -- suffix in Esperanto, and does not decompose. The root is -, one indivisible piece from the Greek, and the -o on the end is the ordinary noun ending doing its ordinary job. This band is full of words whose middles look like affixes and are not, so it is worth developing the habit of checking rather than assuming: the affix list is short and closed, and if a syllable is not on it, it is part of the root.
The word itself is anatomical rather than everyday. In ordinary speech the head is kapo, and is what a doctor, an archaeologist or a novelist reaches for when the bone specifically is the point. That is the same split English keeps between head and skull, so it transfers cleanly.
is transparently international, which is the whole argument for the Greek and Latin medical vocabulary sitting in the Esperanto core: a Spanish, Polish or Japanese medical student recognises it on sight. o is not a word, krania is the adjective, and the brain inside is the cerbo.
Where this fits
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kranio: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "kranio" (skull): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 41.