mesio-
A midline.
[Formed irregularly from Greek mesos, middle.]
The adjective mesial refers to a direction or position towards the middle line of a body. Compounds of mesio- appear mainly in dentistry: mesiobuccal (Latin bucca, cheek), between the mesial and buccal surfaces of a tooth, or mesiodens (Latin dens, dent-, tooth), an extra tooth that develops in the midline of the palate, between the central incisors.
Visit Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site for 2000+ articles on English!
Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Page last updated 23 September 2008.
Your comments and suggestions on the site are very welcome.