From the Latin ab- (“away”) + cedere (“to go”), an abscess is named for the notion that humors leave the body through pus. Mycobacterium abscessus was first isolated from gluteal abscesses in a 62-year-old patient who had injured her knee as a child and had a disseminated infection 48 years later. The species M. bolletii, named after the late microbiologist and taxonomist Claude Bollet, was described in 2006. In current taxonomy, M. bolletii and M. massiliense (named for Massilia, the ancient Greek and Roman name for Marseille, where the organism was isolated) have been incorporated into M. abscessus subsp. bolletii.