Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Eczema
/ˈɛksɪmə/noun
A skin condition of itching, redness, weeping and scaling.
The Greek roots
ἐκ
ek
out
ζεῖν
zeîn
to boil
Literally: “a boiling out”
The story of the word
Ekzeîn is what water does in a pot, and Greek physicians used ékzema for eruptions that seemed to boil out through the skin. English took it from medical Latin in the mid-1700s. The consonant cluster at the front defeats most spellers and gets softened in speech to something like exma. Dermatitis covers much the same ground, and which name a doctor reaches for is largely habit.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
In a sentence
The eczema on his hands flares every winter when the heating goes on.