Abstract
The thyroid gland was described as early as the 16th century by Andreas Vesalius and probably even earlier by Leonardo da Vinci. It was named in 1656 by Thomas Wharton, who used the Latin designation glandula thyreoidea. The Latin form is derived from the Greek thyr (shield) and eiodos (appearance), referring to the shield-shaped cartilage in the larynx.
The hormone produced by the thyroid gland, thyroxine, is composed of tyrosyl residues (from the amino acid tyrosine). Tyrosine is an aromatic amino acid, the name of which is derived from the Greek tyros, meaning cheese. The name thyroxine is thus derived from tyrosine and not from thyroid.
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Nyström, E., Berg, G., Jansson, S., Tørring, O., Valdemarsson, S. (2011). Historical Background. In: Thyroid Disease in Adults. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13262-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13262-9_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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