Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Pancreatitis
/ˌpæŋkriəˈtaɪtɪs/noun
Inflammation of the pancreas, usually caused by gallstones or alcohol.
The Greek roots
πᾶν
pân
all
κρέας
kréas
flesh, meat
-ῖτις
-îtis
inflammation of
Literally: “inflammation of the all-flesh organ”
The story of the word
πάγκρεας means all flesh, the Greek anatomists' name for an organ that looked uniform throughout, with no gristle or fat to break it up. Their description was structural, not functional; the pancreas turned out to make both digestive enzymes and insulin. Acute pancreatitis is the organ digesting itself with its own enzymes, which explains why the pain is what it is.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
pancreascreatinepancreaticpanorama
In a sentence
The scan confirmed gallstone pancreatitis and she was admitted the same afternoon.