There are some errors in the etymology given below. In the first place Leeuwenhoek's name is spelled wrong, he was not a monk, and he did not discover cells, which were first described by Robert Hook.


Cell
Originally meant a monk's living space. It was a monk, Leuenhook, who invented the first microscope. His first specimen was a peice of cork, which was made up of many small rectangular sub-parts. To him, the small rectangles were like the small room monks lived in, known as cells. Thus, he called these microscopic building blocks "cells".