Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Hyperglycemia
/ˌhaɪpərɡlaɪˈsiːmiə/noun
An abnormally high level of glucose in the blood.
The Greek roots
ὑπέρ
hypér
over, above
γλυκύς
glykýs
sweet
αἷμα
haîma
blood
Literally: “over-sweet blood”
The story of the word
Sweetness over the top. γλυκύς gives glucose, which Dumas named in 1838 from γλεῦκος, the sweet unfermented juice of new wine. Greek physicians had already named the disease from its other symptom: Aretaeus called it διαβήτης, a siphon, for the way liquid ran straight through the patient. Tasting the urine stayed a diagnostic test for centuries, which is where the Latin mellitus, honeyed, comes from.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
hypoglycemiaglycogenglucoseanemia
In a sentence
The monitor alarms at any run of hyperglycemia overnight.
Steroids can cause hyperglycemia in patients who have never been diabetic.