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While enjoying a Bloomin’ Onion at our neighborhood Outback Steakhouse, my wife and I were discussing the origin of the term “caesarean section.” (Shockingly, we were dining alone.) We decided that it was somehow related to Julius, and that we could wait for the upcoming — and untitled — mental_floss book on the origins of everything for confirmation.
But later that night, I had all kinds of time and no kinds of patience. So I Googled. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the term came from “the traditional belief that Julius Caesar was born by this operation.”
Sounded about right. But not the whole story. From WordOrigins:
“The term comes from the name of Julius Caesar, who according to legend was delivered by this method. Although this is where the term Caesarean comes from, this legend about Julius’s birth is almost certainly false. While surgical deliveries were known in ancient Rome, they invariably resulted in the death of the mother and Julius’s mother, Aurelia, lived well into her son’s adulthood.”
And those quirky Wikipedians had this to add: “The term may be simply derived from the Latin verb caedere (supine stem caesum), ‘to cut.’”
I’ll turn the floor over to any armchair linguists in the audience.
I remember reading somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you where, that the phrase ‘cesarean section’ is redundant, because both mean cutting, and the correct term is ‘cesarean birth’.
posted by Alice H on 10-27-2006 at 11:19 am
As Alice indicated, it’s not spelled “Caesarean” anyway; it’s “Cesarean.”
posted by Betsy on 10-27-2006 at 11:32 am
Caesarean simply includes the ‘ae’ diphthong, which is often now dropped because of phonetic/orthographic changes in English, right? It’s just an older way of spelling it, as far as I know.
posted by Michael on 10-27-2006 at 1:38 pm
My mother is an ob-gyn, and medical slang for cesarean is “c-section.” I didn’t find out that it was short for something until I was well into my teens. Before that I asumed it was named for the shape of the cut.
posted by moonablaze on 10-27-2006 at 2:44 pm
I’d be the first one to sheepishly admit a spelling error, but in this case I’m not wrong. Both are accepted, though Betsy’s preferred spelling is more widely used.
Like guerrilla and guerilla, and some other examples.
(I really hope none of these words are spelled incorrectly.)
posted by Jason on 10-27-2006 at 3:11 pm
I remember reading that c-sections were invented long, long ago by either arab or muslim doctors, and that it became a life saving technique in cases of blocked births. Has anyone heard anything similiar?
posted by Dana on 10-28-2006 at 6:21 pm
When I was attempting to teach Macbeth to high school students, I would often use the example of a c-section as a way of explaining why Macduff could kill Macbeth - he (Macduff that is) was untimely ripped from his mother’s womb. It’s off topic but so much of life is.
posted by Carol on 10-29-2006 at 11:24 am
My wife is an RN in an OB-GYN facility, and says that the term originated because Julius Ceasar was delivered by that method. Wikipedia makes mention of that possibility as well.
Could very well be a nice tale, like Romulus & Remus (or is that true?)
posted by Dave on 10-30-2006 at 4:31 pm
Usage seems to be about 50/50 worldwide, although “Caesarean” appears to be considered more British (by Americans, anyway). But his name is still Julius Caesar, and not Cesar, isn’t it?
posted by Joe on 1-15-2007 at 8:39 am
In the 1998 movie Blade Cesarian section is how Blade is born when his mother Vanessa was attacked by a vampire while pregnant with him.This is shown in a flashback to 1967.When he grows up Blade whose real name is Eric discovers that his mother came back as a vampire he kills her to lift her curse.
posted by Greg White on 4-30-2007 at 8:55 pm