Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Necrosis
/nəˈkroʊsɪs/noun
The death of cells or tissue in a living body through injury or lost blood supply.
The Greek roots
νέκρωσις
nékrōsis
a making dead
Literally: “a putting to death”
Follow a root:νέκρωσις1 word
The story of the word
From nekros, corpse. Pathologists draw a line between necrosis, which is messy and unplanned, and apoptosis, the orderly self-shutdown a cell performs on schedule. The same root gives necropolis, city of the dead, and necromancy, divination by consulting corpses, which medieval Latin garbled into nigromantia, black arts, on the strength of a similar-sounding word for black.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
necropolisnecromancynecroticnectar
In a sentence
The scan showed necrosis in the head of the femur.