Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Diathermy
/ˈdaɪəθɜːmi/noun
The use of high-frequency electric current to generate heat inside body tissue.
The Greek roots
διά
diá
through, across
θέρμη
thérmē
heat
Literally: “heating through”
The story of the word
Karl Franz Nagelschmidt coined the German Diathermie in 1907 after showing that high-frequency current crosses the body and warms it from within instead of burning the skin. Surgeons use the harsher version to cut and seal a vessel in the same stroke; physiotherapists use a gentler one on deep muscle. The name is a claim about depth, which is the whole point of the technique.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- early 20th century
Same family
thermometerthermalisothermdiameter
In a sentence
The surgeon closed the small bleeders with diathermy and moved on.