Word(s) of the Day Addendum

Inre: the post below I learned two new terms related to childbirth. I will quote directly from my nursing student friend's email below:

Cheese-like is exactly the way [vernix] was described to me, and in fact, the way it looks in person. Did you know that the later in gestation the baby is delivered, the less vernix it will have? More fun-OB-terminology/fun facts: when the placenta is delivered, they examine it to see how it detached from the uterus. It can come two different ways - with the baby's or mother's side on the outside. These two placental presentations are called, respectively, Shiny Shultze and Dirty Duncan. How weird is that? Doesn't Dirty Duncan in particular sound like some sordid sex act?

Yes, Dirty Duncan does sound like some sordid sex act, like a Dirty Sanchez to be precise. However, in obstetric terminology, I am inclined to suppose that the two phrases have no real importance and are only used as more colorful and easy to remember replacements for up/down or yes/no signifiers.

As an aside. Here is the full OED entry on Placenta:

PLACO- (comb. form) + -, suffix generally forming adjectives. Cf. French placenta (1642 in sense 1, 1694 in Tournefort in sense 2), Italian placenta (1694 in sense 2, 1698 in sense 1), German Plazenta (16th cent. as Placenta in sense 1). In plural form placentae after the Latin plural form.]

1. Anat. and Zool. A round, flat, spongy, vascular organ to which the fetus of most mammals (i.e. those other than monotremes and marsupials: see PLACENTAL

adj. 2) is attached by the umbilical cord, through which oxygen and nutrients pass from the maternal blood, and which is expelled as the afterbirth. Also: a structure having a similar function in other animals, such as certain viviparous fishes, ascidians, etc.
1638 A. READ Man. Anat. Body of Man (new ed.) I. xxvi. 252 About the upper part of the bottom, unto the which the placenta uteri is tyed, it becommeth almost two inches thick. 1667 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 510 He giveth a particular account of the double Placenta or Cake, to be found in Rabbets, Hares, Mice, Moles, &c. 1692 J. RAY Wisdom of God (ed. 2) I. 67 The Blood still circulates through the Cotyledons or Placenta. 1728 E. CHAMBERS Cycl., Placenta, in Anatomy, a softish Mass, found in the Womb of a pregnant Woman. 1782 Philos. Trans. 1781 (Royal Soc.) 71 359, 5 women had the puerperal fever, of whom four died. In one of these the placenta was undelivered, and continued so to her death. 1832 London Med. & Physical Jrnl. 68 72, I have observed..many placentæ expelled in natural labour. 1875 C. C. BLAKE Zoology Pref., Sharks bring forth their young alive, and nourish them while in the womb by a temporary structure called ‘placenta’. 1888 G. ROLLESTON & W. H. JACKSON Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 445 In Salpa the developing embryo is nourished by a placenta formed, in part at least, by follicle cells. 1923 J. M. M. KERR et al. Combined Text-bk. Obstetr. & Gynæcol. xxvii. 390 In binovular twin pregnancy there are, no matter how closely the placentæ are approximated, two distinct chorions. 1986 A. S. ROMER & T. S. PARSONS Vertebr. Body (ed. 6) v. 134 Some lizards and snakes have chorioallantoic placentae, reduced yolk, and other features normally thought of as purely mammalian. 1990 Birder's World Aug. 58/1 They frequent pupping grounds of seals, feeding on the feces and placentas of the seals. 2002 R. PORTER Blood & Guts i. 7, Immunities passed via the placenta or mother's milk provide infants with some defence.

2. Bot. The place or part in an ovary where the ovules are attached. Also: (in ferns and fern allies) the point on a leaf where the sporangia arise.
1681 N. GREW Mvsævm Regalis Societatis II. iii. 233 The seat of the Placenta, black; which reaches almost half round the Bean. 1682 Anat. Plants IV. III. vii. 191 The Seeds stuck all round about upon the Ambit or Sides of the Case; or upon a great Bed or Placenta within it. 1727 R. BRADLEY Family Dict. s.v. Flower of Parnassus, A Membranous fruit..having..one cell full of seeds, fastened to a placenta which is often very square. 1750 Philos. Trans. 1748 (Royal Soc.) 45 565 Every Seed is fastened by its Point to the Placenta, as to a common Centre. 1830 J. LINDLEY Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 75 Its ovarium contains, instead of three ovules adhering to a central placenta, one only, which is pendulous. 1865 G. BENTHAM Illustr. Handbk. Brit. Flora p. xxx, Placentas are axile, when the ovules are attached to the axis or centre. 1875 A. W. BENNETT & W. T. T. DYER tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 395 The sporangia arise..from some of the superficial cells of the placenta or part to which the sorus is attached. 1914 F. E. FRITSCH & E. J. SALISBURY Introd. Study Plants xix. 245 In an apocarpous ovary the carpels are folded so that their margins meet, each edge usually bearing a number of seed-rudiments or ovules..and being generally somewhat swollen to form a placenta. 1965 P. BELL & D. COOMBE tr. E. Strasburger Textbk. Bot. 580 At the base of the submerged leaf [in the Salviniaceae] are several globose sporocarps..; these enclose the sporangia, which arise from a columnar placenta. 1998 Jrnl. Torrey Bot. Soc. 125 272/2 Placentae range in size from small bulges to prominent protrusions within the locules.


The etymology is intriguing and bears no relation to the etymology of place or placid. However, the word Placent has two meanings, one, an adjective, means eager to please. The other, a noun, while being both obsolete and rare, means a flat cake or tablet. I can find no other word in common use sharing the same etymology as placenta. Kind of a shame, nu? This is why language can be endlessly disappointing, even while we enjoy its riches we are also struck by how rich it could be and is not.

I am tempted here to explore the meanings of puerperal but better stop.