Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Hypoglycemia
/ˌhaɪpoʊɡlaɪˈsiːmiə/noun
An abnormally low level of glucose in the blood, causing shakiness, sweating, confusion and, if untreated, unconsciousness.
The Greek roots
ὑπό
hypó
under, below
γλυκύς
glykýs
sweet
αἷμα
haîma
blood
Literally: “under-sweet blood”
The story of the word
The middle element is not a word for sugar at all but the plain adjective 'sweet', so the compound literally reports blood that is insufficiently sweet. The term became clinically urgent after 1922, when insulin therapy made it possible to push a patient's glucose too far down. ὑπό and its opposite ὑπέρ run in pairs all through medicine, hypothermia against hyperthermia, hypotension against hypertension, and one letter separates two emergencies.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
hyperglycemiaglucoseanaemiahaemorrhage
In a sentence
He carries glucose tablets in case hypoglycemia catches him mid-run.