Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Cyst
/sɪst/noun
A closed sac of fluid or soft material in the body.
The Greek roots
κύστις
kýstis
bladder, pouch
Literally: “bladder”
Follow a root:κύστις3 words
The story of the word
κύστις was the bladder itself, the pouch that holds liquid. Anatomists kept it for any closed sac, and pathologists narrowed it to the sacs that should not be there. Cystitis still points at the original organ, which is why one root covers both a urinary infection and a lump on the back of a wrist.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
cystitiscysticencyst
In a sentence
The scan found a simple cyst on the kidney and nothing else.