Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Homeostasis
/ˌhoʊmioʊˈsteɪsɪs/noun
The body's ability to hold its internal conditions steady while the outside world changes.
The Greek roots
ὅμοιος
hómoios
similar, like
στάσις
stásis
standing, stability
Literally: “staying similar”
The story of the word
Walter Cannon coined it in 1926 and built The Wisdom of the Body around it, extending Claude Bernard's idea of the milieu intérieur. He chose ὅμοιος, similar, over ὁμός, same, and said so explicitly: the point is a state kept within limits, not a fixed value. Blood glucose, core temperature and blood pH all wander a little and get pulled back.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1926
Same family
homeopathystasishomogeneousecstasy
In a sentence
Shivering and sweating are two ends of the same homeostasis.