means A specialized cell of the nervous system that transmits electrical and chemical signals, the basic unit of the brain and nerves.

from From the Greek 'neuron,' which originally meant 'sinew' or 'cord' — the tough, stringy fibers of the body. Ancient anatomists, seeing nerves as pale threads running through flesh, borrowed the same word, and the modern sense of the nerve cell crystallized in the late 19th century as microscopes finally revealed the cell itself. So 'neuron' still carries the old sense of a thread or string — fitting for something that wires thought together.