Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Hygiene
Practices that preserve health and prevent disease.
The Greek roots
ὑγιεινή
hygieinḗ
of health
Literally: “the art of health”
Follow a root:ὑγιεινή1 word
The story of the word
The Greek adjective ὑγιεινή, healthy, stood in for ἡ ὑγιεινὴ τέχνη, the art of health, and reached English through French hygiène. The goddess Hygieia, daughter of Asclepius, is a personification built on the same root ὑγιής, not the source of the word.
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
Good hand hygiene slows the spread of illness.