Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Hepatitis
/ˌhɛpəˈtaɪtɪs/noun
Inflammation of the liver, usually caused by a virus, alcohol or a drug reaction.
The Greek roots
ἧπαρ
hêpar
liver
-ῖτις
-îtis
inflammation of
Literally: “liver inflammation”
The story of the word
The stem is the genitive ἥπατος, which is why the word is hepat- and not hepar-. The -itis ending was originally an adjective agreeing with νόσος, disease, so hepatitis is elliptically liver disease with the noun dropped, and every arthritis and bronchitis since follows that ghost agreement. The alphabet came late: the B virus was identified through Baruch Blumberg's Australia antigen in 1965, and C only in 1989.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
hepaticheparinhepatocyte
In a sentence
He was vaccinated against hepatitis B before the posting.