Anna from Alden, Michigan, recalls as a child looking up the word prophylactic in the dictionary. It goes back to the Greek word phylax, which means “guard.” To guard against tooth decay, you can get dental prophylaxis, also known as teeth cleaning. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Prophylactic”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Anna.
I am calling from Alden, Michigan. It’s a beautiful lake country where I live.
Well, hey, Anna, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?
I kind of have a recollection of when I was a young girl. I remember being interested in vocabulary, and I remember a funny story. And that story entails finding under a pillowcase in my parents’ bedroom a little small plastic package. And my mom’s reaction when she saw me finding it was that she grabbed it from me and put it back in the linen closet.
And I was kind of a curious and resourceful child, so I went to the said linen closet and got that small package and armed myself with a dictionary and then looked up the word. And the word I found was prophylactic. So I was curious about the origins of the word, and I looked it up and see that it’s a noun and an adjective, but I thought, you tell me what you know about that.
Anna, I love that, that you were how old?
Oh, I’m guessing maybe eight or nine, like third or fourth grade. I mean, I do have a recall, but I’m just guessing maybe. That’s a long time ago. I’m 67, so.
I love your phrase, I was armed with a dictionary. Good weapon.
Yes, it is a good weapon. It is.
Okay, our spin on the word prophylactic, which usually means, these days it means a condom, right?
Correct.
Well, you know, this word has always interested me because of its Greek root. I can remember reading ancient Greek and coming across the word phylax in ancient Greek, which means guard or sentinel. You know, it’s somebody who makes sure that you don’t get in.
That’s funny.
Yeah, yeah.
And so that’s spelled P-H-Y-L-A-X in English. But phylax gave us the word prophylactic and prophylaxis. If you go to your dentist for a teeth cleaning, what they’re doing is dental prophylaxis. That’s what they call it.
Correct.
Yeah, it’s like preventative, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, and it’s interesting that you mentioned preventative and preventive, the variant there, because for a long time, that was the term in English used for condom. Prophylactic doesn’t come along until I think the mid, mid what, 20th century?
Yeah, it’s a relatively recent use of that term, prophylactic, meaning something that prevents things. Usually in the past it was used for disease.
Right.
But I just love that the Greek root is this little guy with a sword or a spear or something being a guard.
That’s funny.
That is funny.
Thank you so much for your call.
Okay.
You have a great day.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye now.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
We love those long-lost memories about your stories involving language, and we’d love to hear yours. So call us 877-929-9673 or send it to us an email words@waywordradio.org.
