Acupuncturist

acupuncturist

Can you guess what “acupuncturist” means? (if you already know, please leave this page now)

Well, I didn’t know this, but for starters, judging by the structure of -ist, it must be “a person who practices acupuncture,” whatever “acupuncture” means. It is quite natural to split the word into “acu” and “puncture.” As you may know, “acūtus” is a Latin (first and second declension) adjective that has many descendants in English (e.g. acute, acumen, etc …) and means “sharp.” Also, we Japanese know the word パンク pronounced like “punc,” (which means “a hole in a tire”) which is the very definition of puncture. Now I think you can guess who the acupuncturist is.

By the way, there are many English words derived from this origin. I was a little surprised to find that “cute” has the same origin.