Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Diabetes
/ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz/noun
A disease in which the body cannot control the level of sugar in the blood.
The Greek roots
διά
diá
through, across
βαίνειν
baínein
to go, pass
Literally: “a passing through”
The story of the word
Aretaeus of Cappadocia named it in the second century for exactly what he watched happen: fluid ran straight through the patient as through a siphon, the flesh melting away into urine. The word διαβήτης in ordinary Greek meant a siphon, and also a pair of compasses, the thing that stands with its legs apart. Thomas Willis added mellitus, honeyed, in the 1670s after tasting the urine; diabetes insipidus, the other one, is tasteless.
- 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
diameterdiagnosisbasisacrobat
In a sentence
His diabetes was picked up in a routine blood test.
The clinic runs a diabetes group on Thursday mornings.