Are the words “anthrax” and “anthracite” related?
Anthrax is a disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, demonstrated by such things as flu-like respiratory symptoms, severe vomiting, and skin lesions, depending on the form of exposure (respiratory, gastrointestinal or cutaneous, respectively, for those three). Often the term “anthrax” is used to refer to the bacterium rather than just the disease. Anthracite, meanwhile, is a high-carbon form of coal known for being shiny. Knowing that the “-ite” suffix can mean a mineral, I wondered whether the “anthrac-” part of anthracite was related to “anthrax”.
Turns out it is – sort of. The Greek anthrax means both coal (hence anthracite) and carbuncle (hence anthrax). If this is similar to English “wind” meaning both air movement and as in “to wind up”, then I guess anthrax and anthracite aren’t related at all except that they sound the same (depending on where the Greek words anthrax and anthrax came from), but if it’s more like the word “cow” meaning both a female bovine and a female whale (which is more like the same word meaning two things than two words that are phonetically identical), then I guess they are related.
Digressive Explanations 
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