Another Day, Another Word

Continuing on the theme of words encompassing and arising from a persons name.

Caesarean [si-zair-ee-uhn]

Now I assume that you all know the meaning of the word.

noun
1. the delivery of a fetus by surgical incision through the abdominal wall and uterus (from the belief that Julius Caesar was born that way)

Now wether it was Gaius Julius Caesar, who became the first Emperor of Rome, that the c-section was named after or one of his ancestors is hard to determine now. Caesar was a common name in the Juli family for many generations before Gaius' birth. The oldest surviving reference to it now in existence was by Pliny the Elder in the first century AD, some 300 years after the big GJC. Pliny stated that it was an ancestor of the Emperor that it was named after.

But like in so many things Rome in general and Gaius Julius Caesar in particular had such a far reaching influence on Europe and western civilization that most sources state that is was GJC himself who was born via c-section.

Either way the name has stuck.

Going a bit further on the impact of Caesar on the modern world.

• The title of Emperor, which Napoleon bestowed on himself (well actually the French word is empereur) just prior to leading his Grande Army on a merry jaunt around Europe is a direct descendant of the Latin Imperator which was equivalent to commander or General.
  
• Dictator was the title given to one person, in times of great crisis, all the powers that were normally held by the senate. Part of the deal was that they were Dictator only for a set period of time.
  
• The Russian Tsar and the German Khizer were both derivations of Caesar

I could continue but that is enough for today.