Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Parasympathetic
/ˌpærəsɪmpəˈθɛtɪk/adjective
Belonging to the branch of the autonomic system that slows the heart, narrows the pupil and starts digestion.
The Greek roots
παρά
pará
beside, alongside
σύν
sýn
with, together
πάθος
páthos
feeling, suffering
Literally: “alongside the feeling-with”
The story of the word
John Newport Langley divided the autonomic system in two around 1905 and needed a name for the half that was not the sympathetic chain. παρά, alongside, states the relation exactly: nerves that run beside the sympathetic system and mostly pull the other way. The pairing is usually summarised as fight-or-flight against rest-and-digest, which is tidier than the physiology, since the two branches are more often co-operating than duelling.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
parasiteparallelsympathypathology
In a sentence
Slow breathing out is the cheapest parasympathetic trick there is.
The vagus carries most of the parasympathetic supply to the gut.