carotid

the term 'carotid' originates from the greek word 'karōtides', the plural of 'karōtis', meaning 'artery of the neck'. this, in turn, is derived from the verb 'karoun', which means 'to stupefy' or 'to plunge into deep sleep'. the ancient greek anatomists, likely erasistratus or herophilus, named these arteries based on the belief that compression of them could induce unconsciousness. the word passed into latin as 'carotides' and later into middle french as 'carotide', before being adopted into english in the early 17th century, retaining its specialized anatomical reference.

the word is a simplex loanword from greek via latin and french. it does not neatly divide into meaningful substrings in its modern english spelling that correspond to distinct morphemes.