metabolism
/mɪˈtabəlɪz(ə)m
/- Altered carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism leads to a catabolic state.
- It is also known that peroxisomal metabolism is lower in fish than in mammals.
- In addition to carbohydrate metabolism, other processes were affected by stress.
Two kinds of metabolism are often distinguished: constructive metabolism, the synthesis of the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats which form tissue and store energy, and destructive metabolism, the breakdown of complex substances and the consequent production of energy and waste matter.
Origin
Late 19th century: from Greek metabolē 'change' (from metaballein 'to change') + -ism.
midwife from Middle English:
The original sense of midwife seems to have been ‘a woman who is with the mother’. Mid- here is not connected to middle, but is an old word meaning ‘with’ that is related to Greek meta ‘with’, which appears in English words beginning meta-, such as metabolism (late 19th century), metaphorical (mid 16th century), and metaphysics (mid 16th century). ‘A woman’ (rather than ‘a married woman’) is the oldest sense of wife, still used in Scotland.