Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Hypothermia
/ˌhaɪpoʊˈθɜːrmiə/noun
A dangerous fall in core body temperature below about 35°C.
The Greek roots
ὑπό
hypó
under, below
θέρμη
thérmē
heat
Literally: “under-heat”
The story of the word
Doctors built the word in the nineteenth century on the pattern that also produced hyperthermia, and it names a threshold rather than a sensation: being cold is not hypothermia until the core falls. Surgeons later learned to induce it deliberately, cooling patients to slow the brain's demand for oxygen during heart operations. The same θέρμη names Thermopylae, the hot gates, after the sulphur springs beside the pass.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
thermometerthermoshyperthermiahypodermic
In a sentence
Two of the walkers were treated for hypothermia after a night on the ridge.