Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Neoplasm
/ˈniːoʊplæzəm/noun
An abnormal growth of new tissue, benign or malignant.
The Greek roots
νέος
néos
new
πλάσμα
plásma
something moulded
Literally: “new formation”
The story of the word
πλάσμα comes from πλάσσω, the potter's verb for working clay, which also stands behind plaster and plastic. Nineteenth-century pathologists adopted neoplasm precisely because it claims less than tumour or cancer: it names an uncontrolled new growth and withholds judgement on whether it will invade anything. A wart and a sarcoma are both neoplasms, and the word is doing careful work when a doctor chooses it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
plasmaplasticprotoplasmplasterneolithic
In a sentence
The report called it a benign neoplasm and recommended watching it for a year.