Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Anorexia
/ˌænəˈrɛksiə/noun
Loss of appetite; in common use, the eating disorder anorexia nervosa.
The Greek roots
ἀν-
an-
without
ὄρεξις
órexis
appetite, longing
Literally: “without appetite”
The story of the word
The Greek is plain clinical description: an-, without, and órexis, appetite, from a verb meaning to reach out for something. English medicine used it from the 1590s for lost appetite of any cause, in fever or in grief. William Gull attached nervosa in the 1870s for the young patients whose starvation no physical illness explained, and the qualified sense has almost swallowed the older one.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1590s
Same family
orecticbulimiacachexia
In a sentence
Anorexia is a common side effect in the first weeks of treatment.
She was treated for anorexia at nineteen and has spoken about it since.