Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Neuropathy
/njʊˈrɒpəθi/noun
Damage or disease affecting the peripheral nerves, causing numbness, tingling, weakness or burning pain.
The Greek roots
νεῦρον
neûron
nerve, sinew
πάθος
páthos
suffering, affliction
Literally: “nerve suffering”
The story of the word
νεῦρον meant a sinew, a tendon, or a bowstring long before it meant a nerve. Greek anatomists lumped every white cord together until Herophilus in third-century BC Alexandria distinguished the nerves proper by dissection, and the word narrowed to fit the discovery. Aponeurosis, the flat tendon sheet, kept the older sense and now sits in the anatomy books beside neurology like a fossil.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → medical Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
neuronneurologyaponeurosisneuralgia
In a sentence
Years of poorly controlled diabetes had left him with neuropathy in both feet.