Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Lordosis
/lɔːrˈdoʊsɪs/noun
The inward curve of the lower spine, or an exaggerated version of it.
The Greek roots
λόρδωσις
lórdōsis
a bending backward
Literally: “a bending backward”
Follow a root:λόρδωσις1 word
The story of the word
Every healthy spine has lordosis at the neck and the lower back; the clinical problem is excess, which gets the extra prefix in hyperlordosis. The adjective lordos in classical Greek described a stooping, bent-back posture and turns up in Aristophanes with a joke attached. Behavioural biology uses the same word for the arched mating posture of many mammals.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
In a sentence
Heavy squatting with a loose core exaggerated the lordosis and the back pain came with it.