Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Prophylaxis
/ˌproʊfɪˈlæksɪs/noun
Treatment given to prevent a disease rather than to cure one.
The Greek roots
πρό
pró
before, in front of
φύλαξις
phýlaxis
a guarding, watching
Literally: “guarding beforehand”
The story of the word
The Greek φύλαξ was a sentry, and Plato's guardians in the Republic are φύλακες, the class posted to watch the city. Medicine adopted the compound in the nineteenth century for anything done in advance of an illness, and dentistry then took it for the routine clean. Prophylactic in the contraceptive sense is a euphemism that spread through American English in the twentieth century.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
prophylacticphylacteryprologueprogramme
In a sentence
Travellers to the region were told to start malaria prophylaxis a week before flying.