Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Thrombus
/ˈθrɒmbəs/noun
A blood clot formed inside a vessel and stuck to its wall.
The Greek roots
θρόμβος
thrómbos
lump, clot, curd
Literally: “a curd”
Follow a root:θρόμβος4 words
The story of the word
θρόμβος was a lump, and in particular curdled milk, which is close to what happens when fibrin sets in blood. Pathology uses it strictly for a clot that forms and stays where it formed; once it breaks loose and travels it is an embolus and gets a different name. Virchow set out in the 1850s the three conditions that produce one, sluggish flow, a damaged wall and blood too ready to clot, and the triad still carries his name.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
thrombosisthrombocyteantithrombin
In a sentence
Ultrasound found a thrombus in the calf vein.
A thrombus on a valve is a surgical problem, not a medical one.