Editing Neuron (section)

==Etymology and spelling==

The German anatomist [[Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz|Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer]] introduced the term ''neuron'' in 1891,<ref name="finger"/> based on the [[Greek language|ancient Greek]] νεῦρον ''neuron'' 'sinew, cord, nerve'.<ref name="oed">''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 3rd edition, 2003, ''s.v.''</ref> 

The word was adopted in French with the spelling ''neurone''. That spelling was also used by many writers in English,<ref name="Mehta">{{cite journal | vauthors = Mehta AR, Mehta PR, Anderson SP, MacKinnon BL, Compston A | title = Grey Matter Etymology and the neuron(e) | journal = Brain | volume = 143 | issue = 1 | pages = 374–379 | date = January 2020 | pmid = 31844876 | pmc = 6935745 | doi = 10.1093/brain/awz367 | url = }}</ref> but has now become rare in American usage and uncommon in British usage.<ref name="ngram">{{cite web |title=Google Books Ngram Viewer |url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=neuron%2Cneurone&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&case_insensitive=on&corpus=15&smoothing=3&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cneuron%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bneuron%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BNeuron%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BNEURON%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cneurone%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bneurone%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BNeurone%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BNEURONE%3B%2Cc0 |website=books.google.com |access-date=19 December 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="oed"/>

Some previous works used ''nerve cell'' (''cellule nervose''), as adopted in [[Camillo Golgi]]'s 1873 paper on the discovery of the silver staining technique used to visualize nervous tissue under light microscopy.<ref>Golgi, C. (1873). Sulla struttura della sostanza grigia del cervello (Comunicazione preventiva). ''Gaz. Med. Ital. Lomb.'' 33, 244–246. [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=cydbAAAAcAAJ].</ref>