section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The term 'antibiosis', meaning "against life", was introduced by the French bacteriologist Jean Paul Vuillemin as a descriptive name of the phenomenon exhibited by these early antibacterial drugs. Antibiosis was first described in 1877 in bacteria when Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch observed that an airborne bacillus could inhibit the growth of Bacillus anthracis. These drugs were later renamed antibiotics by Selman Waksman, an American microbiologist, in 1947.
  
  The term antibiotic was first used in 1942 by Selman Waksman and his collaborators in journal articles to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution. This definition excluded substances that kill bacteria but that are not produced by microorganisms (such as gastric juices and hydrogen peroxide). It also excluded synthetic antibacterial compounds such as the sulfonamides. In current usage, the term "antibiotic" is applied to any medication that kills bacteria or inhibits their growth, regardless of whether that medication is produced by a microorganism or not.
  
  The term "antibiotic" derives from anti + βιωτικός (biōtikos), "fit for life, lively", which comes from βίωσις (biōsis), "way of life", and that from βίος (bios), "life". The term "antibacterial" derives from Greek ἀντί (anti), "against" + βακτήριον (baktērion), diminutive of βακτηρία (baktēria), "staff, cane", because the first bacteria to be discovered were rod-shaped.