comb. form (before a vowel, cyt-), from Mod.L., from Gk. kytos "a hollow, receptacle, basket" (from PIE *ku-ti-, from base *(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."