Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Periodontitis
/ˌpɛrioʊdɒnˈtaɪtɪs/noun
Inflammation of the tissues and bone anchoring a tooth, which loosens and eventually loses it.
The Greek roots
περί
perí
around, about
ὀδούς
odoús
tooth
-ῖτις
-îtis
inflammation
Literally: “inflammation around the tooth”
The story of the word
Three Greek pieces: around, tooth, and the ending medicine reserves for inflammation. Dentists draw a hard line between this and gingivitis, which stops at the gum; periodontitis reaches the bone. The -ῖτις ending began as a feminine adjective agreeing with an unspoken νόσος, disease, so arthritis was once simply the joint one.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → New Latin medical coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
orthodontistodontologymastodonperiscope
In a sentence
Her dentist caught the periodontitis early, before the bone loss showed on an X-ray.
Smoking roughly doubles the risk of periodontitis.