Creosote name is derived . The two main kinds recognized in industry are coal-tar creosote and wood-tar creosote. The coal-tar variety, having stronger and more toxic properties, has chiefly been used as a preservative for wood; coal-tar creosote was also formerly used as an escharotic, to burn malignant skin tissue, and in dentistry, to prevent necrosis, before its carcinogenic properties became known. The wood-tar variety has been used for meat preservation, ship treatment, and such medical purposes as an anaesthetic, antiseptic, astringent, expectorant, and laxative, though these have mostly been replaced by modern formulations. Varieties of creosote have also been made
English words of Greek origin "bacterium" < βακτήριον 'stick (diminutive)' is a kind of microorganism rather than a small stick or staff. This also applies to combining forms used in neologisms: "-cyte" or "cyto-" < κύτος 'container' means biological cells, not arbitrary containers; "-oma" < -ωμα, a generic morpheme forming deverbal nouns such as "diploma" 'a folded thing' and "glaucoma" 'greyness', comes to have the very narrow meaning of 'tumor' or 'swelling', on the model of words like "carcinoma" < καρκίνωμα. For example, "melanoma" does not come from Greek μελάνωμα 'blackness', but rather from the modern combining forms "melano-" 'dark (in biology)' + "-oma" 'tumor'.