myringa

Where it comes from

From international scientific vocabulary, from Latin myrinx. An 1885 otological monograph says that the tympanic membrane (eardrum) was called by the New Latin words myrinx and myringa by Hieronymus Fabricius in 1600: "The folio edition of his works, published in 1600, contains a very systematic and clear account of the anatomy of the ear as then understood. He gives the name myrinx, as well as myringa—whence our myringitis—to the membrana tympani [membrana tympanica]." Probably a corruption of mēninx.