Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Analgesia
/ˌænəlˈdʒiːziə/noun
Relief from pain without loss of consciousness.
The Greek roots
ἀν-
an-
without
ἄλγος
álgos
pain
Literally: “absence of pain”
The story of the word
In Greek ἀναλγησία could mean insensibility of the moral kind, a hardness that fails to feel for anyone else. Medicine kept only the physical half, and the surviving distinction is a useful one: an analgesic removes the pain, an anaesthetic removes the patient. The same ἄλγος hides inside nostalgia, which was coined for the ache of the return home.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
analgesicneuralgianostalgiamyalgia
In a sentence
The block gave complete analgesia below the knee while she stayed awake throughout.