Respiratory medicine

The twenty-fourth entry is l’amianto, and it is the one word on this page where English and Italian picked different ancient names for the same substance. Both names are Greek and both are built the same way, on the privative alpha that also opens « atypical » and « anaemia ». Our « asbestos » goes back to asbestos, formed on sbennynai, to quench: the stone that fire cannot put out. Theirs goes back to amiantos, formed on miainein, to stain: the stone that fire cannot dirty. The two adjectives describe the same trick from opposite ends, because in antiquity the fibre was shown off by being thrown into a flame and pulled out clean. Italian does own the other word as well, l’asbesto, but it lives in mineralogy and in translations; what stands on a referral, in a statute and on a demolition notice is l’amianto, and l’esposizione all’amianto is what the question at entry twenty-three is asking about. One more thing the spelling hides: l’amianto is masculine, and the elided article says nothing either way.