Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Orthotic
/ɔːrˈθɒtɪk/noun
A device worn to support, align or correct the function of a limb or the spine.
The Greek roots
ὀρθός
orthós
straight, upright, correct
Literally: “straightening device”
Follow a root:ὀρθός9 words
The story of the word
Twentieth-century clinical coinage, built on ὀρθός and shaped to rhyme with prosthetic, the field it sits beside: a prosthesis replaces a limb, an orthosis corrects one. ὀρθός runs through English as a demand for straightness in every domain, teeth in orthodontics, spelling in orthography, doctrine in orthodox. The Greeks used it first for physical uprightness, a man standing straight, a wall true to the plumb line.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
orthodoxorthographyorthodonticsorthopaedic
In a sentence
A custom orthotic in each shoe finally stopped the shin pain.
He runs in orthotics now and swears by them.