- cyto-
- before a vowel, cyt-, word-forming element, from Latinized form of Greek kytos "a hollow, receptacle, basket" (from PIE *ku-ti-, from root *(s)keu- "to cover, conceal;" see hide (n.1)); used in modern science since c. 1859 for "cell," perhaps especially from the sense (in Aristophanes) of "a cell of a hive of wasps or bees."
