Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Cardiology
/ˌkɑːrdiˈɑːlədʒi/noun
The branch of medicine concerned with the heart and its diseases.
The Greek roots
καρδία
kardía
heart
-λογία
-logía
study, account
Literally: “study of the heart”
The story of the word
In Homer καρδία is both the organ and the seat of nerve, anger and grief; Greeks put courage there rather than in the head. The compound itself is modern, assembled in the nineteenth century when medicine began carving itself into specialities. Cordial belongs to the Latin cousin cor, and a cordial was originally a drink given to strengthen a failing heart.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
cardiactachycardiamyocardiumpericardium
In a sentence
She switched from surgery to cardiology in her third year of training.