Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Hyperplasia
/ˌhaɪpərˈpleɪʒə/noun
The enlargement of a tissue through an increase in the number of its cells.
The Greek roots
ὑπέρ
hypér
over, beyond
πλάσις
plásis
a moulding, forming
Literally: “over-forming”
The story of the word
The clinically important boundary is with neoplasia: hyperplasia stops when the stimulus stops, and a tumour does not. The everyday case is benign prostatic hyperplasia, which most men past seventy have to some degree and which explains a great deal of nocturnal traffic. πλάσσω is a potter's verb, shaping wet clay, and the same root gives plastic, plaster and protoplasm.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
neoplasmplasticprotoplasmhypertrophy
In a sentence
The biopsy showed hyperplasia without any sign of malignancy.