Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Orthopedics
/ˌɔːrθəˈpiːdɪks/noun
The branch of medicine that treats bones, joints, muscles and the rest of the musculoskeletal system.
The Greek roots
ὀρθός
orthós
straight, upright
παιδίον
paidíon
young child
Literally: “straightening of children”
The story of the word
Nicolas Andry, a Paris physician, put orthopédie on a book cover in 1741 and meant it literally: keeping children's spines and limbs from growing crooked. His emblem was a young tree tied to a stake, and it is still the badge of the specialty worldwide. The work has since moved almost entirely to adult hips, knees and fractures, leaving the child stranded in the name.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
orthodoxorthographypediatricsencyclopedia
In a sentence
She waited four months for an orthopedics appointment about her knee.
Most of the orthopedics ward that night was motorcycles and ladders.