QUOTE(Jon Awbrey @ Sat 10th May 2008, 12:40am)
I used to hang out with folks who ran an artificial language lab that did a lot of rehab applications. I remember there being a dispute about the etymology of "prosthetic". People who took it as being simply the Greek for "extension" usually had no problem with the word. People who took it as deriving from "pro-aesthetic", for example, a limb provided "for the aesthetic benefit of the onlooker", tended to consider it offensive. I forget if there was ever any resolution of which was the true and which was the false etymology.
Jon (IMG:
smilys0b23ax56/default/cool.gif)
Co-enzymes in biochemistry have prosthetic groups. These sometimes cannot be synthesized (and in other cases are synthesized), and are derived from vitamins, when not. But in all cases they're molecular extensions to hold a reactive group being worked on-- they certainly aren't for show.
Once more case where a false etymology often ruffles feathers: niggardly.