amygdala

Because of its shape, from Latin amygdala (“almond”), from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē, “almond”). Doublet of almond and mandorla.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /əˈmɪɡ.də.lə/

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amygdala (plural amygdalas or amygdalae)

1. (neuroanatomy) Each one of the two regions of the brain, located as a pair in the medial temporal lobe, believed to play a key role in processing emotions, such as fear and pleasure, in both animals and humans.
   • 2009 February 12, David Brooks, “The Worst-Case Scenario”, in New York Times‎:

     Cognitive scientists distinguish between normal risk-assessment decisions, which activate the reward-prediction regions of the brain, and decisions made amid extreme uncertainty, which generate activity in the amygdala.

• (region of the brain): brain, limbic system

• amygdalian
• amygdalin
• amygdaloid
• mesoamygdala

amygdala f

1. amygdala

• amigdala (Medieval Latin)

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aˈmyɡ.da.la/, [äˈmʏɡd̪äɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈmiɡ.da.la/, [äˈmiɡd̪älä]

From Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē, “almond”). The sense "tonsil" is likely a calque of Arabic لَوْز (lawz).

amygdala f (genitive amygdalae); first declension

1. almond tree
2. almond

   Synonym: amygdalum

3. (Medieval Latin) tonsil

First-declension noun.

• Sicilian: mènnula
• → Proto-West Germanic: *mandalā (see there for further descendants)

amygdala

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of amygdalum

• “amygdala”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• amygdala in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• amygdala in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

amygdala f (plural amygdalas)

1. Obsolete spelling of amígdala