Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Orthopedic
/ˌɔːrθəˈpiːdɪk/adjective
Relating to the branch of medicine that treats bones, joints, muscles and their deformities.
The Greek roots
ὀρθός
orthós
straight, upright
παῖς, παιδός
paîs, paidós
child, boy
Literally: “straight child”
The story of the word
Nicolas Andry coined orthopédie in Paris in 1741 for the straightening of children, and illustrated the book with a crooked young tree bound to a stake, an image the profession still uses as its emblem. Andry was in his eighties and writing about posture, rickets and spinal curves, not about the hips and knees of adults, which is now most of the work. The pedic in it is a child and not a foot; that resemblance is an accident of Greek meeting Latin.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
orthodoxorthographypediatricspedagogy
In a sentence
She was sent to an orthopedic surgeon about the shoulder.
The orthopedic ward is full of skiers every February.