Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Arthritis
/ɑːrˈθraɪtɪs/noun
Painful swelling and stiffness in the joints.
The Greek roots
ἄρθρον
árthron
joint, limb-joint
-ῖτις
-îtis
inflammation of
Literally: “joint inflammation”
The story of the word
The -itis ending started life as a Greek feminine adjective agreeing with νόσος, disease, so ἀρθρῖτις is short for "the joint disease". Ancient writers used it above all for gout, the joint affliction they knew best. Medicine kept the suffix and now fixes it to almost any inflamed structure. ἄρθρον also names the joint of a sentence: Greek grammarians called the article τὸ ἄρθρον.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
arthropodarthroscopyarthroplasty
In a sentence
The arthritis in her hands finally stopped her knitting.
He was diagnosed with arthritis at thirty-four, which nobody expected.