Expert: Maria - 1/3/2012

Question
QUESTION: Hi Maria,

Hope you had a good holiday, and Happy New Year.

I'm interested in knowing the word origin of two few medical terms.

"Urticaria".  The medical term for hives. From my research I think it means sting of a Nettle plant, but I'm unsure.  Does it mean the sting itself, or the stinging capacity of the Nettle?

"Angioedema".  The medical term of skin swellings. Angio means blood?  Yet the swelling isn't really blood.  Edema means swelling, I think.  Also, the use of "angio" is so common in medical terms, is it being used too loosely?

I'm preparing some informatin on these medical conditions, and don't want to mislead my audience about the meaning of the words :-)

Thanks!
Usuff

ANSWER: Hello,

here’s the origin of the medical terms “urticaria” and “angioedema”.

1-URTICARIA derives from the Latin noun “urtica” (1st.declension) meaning “nettle”, just as you say.
This herbaceous plant has on its stems and leaves stinging hairs that sting the skin and release a fluid that irritates it for hours.

Hence the medical term of urticaria  for hives, i.e. a hypersensitive skin reaction (nettle rash) characterized by the sudden appearance of very itchy, slightly raised papules and plaques that are usually redder or paler than the surrounding skin.

In short,  Latin “urtica” means exactly “nettle” /”stinging nettle”, not the sting itself  or the stinging capacity of the nettle, and “urticaria” is therefore the medical term for nettle rash/hives.



As for “angioedema”, it derives from ancient Greek and is composed of two nouns, i.e.

1)“angio” from Greek ἀγγεῖον, transliterated as “angeion”, meaning “cavity”/”vessel"( to hold liquids) and then “blood vessel”.
2)"edema" from Greek οἴδημα, transliterated as “oidema”/“edema”,meaning “swelling”.

To sum up, the literal translation of this medical term for skin swellings is “vessel's (Greek,angeion) swelling" (Greek, oidema/edema).

As you can see, the term “angio”, used as a prefix, is not  being used too loosely nor means simply  “blood”, but “vessel”/”cavity” and thus “blood vessel”.

Such a term is so common in medicine where we have for example “angiography” and “angioplasty” that are therapeutic procedures just related to vessels/cavities and then blood vessels.

Hope all is clear enough. Feel free however to ask me again.

Best regards and Happy New Year,
Maria


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, Maria for that thorough answer.

I was just wondering, what the "ria" does?  It is added to the end of  "urtica" to get "urticaria".  What does it do grammatically to the noun?

Does it mean related to, derived from etc?

I took Latin in school but dropped out because I found it hard.  I admire your linguistic talent.

Cheers,
Usuff

Answer
Hello,

In Latin there are some suffixes like e.g. “-arius”(masculine), “-aria” (feminine), “-arium” (neuter) that are added to the end of a word or stem, serving to form a new word or functioning as an inflectional ending.

See for example the adjective “Februarius”, after “Februa”, meaning “expiatory rites”, i.e.  the Roman festival of purification and expiation celebrated on the 15th of the month hence called just February.

These suffixes have no meaning as they only serve  to adjust or qualify the meaning of a word.

As for “urticaria” from the Latin noun “urtica”(nettle), it is a late Latin adjective with the feminine suffix “-aria” because it agrees with the implied feminine noun “febris” meaning “fever”.

So, “febris urticaria” meaning “urticant / stinging fever”  simply becomes “urticaria” without the feminine noun “febris”.

Similarly, “mensis Februarius”,where the adjective “Februarius” is in the masculine as it agrees with the masculine noun “mensis”(month), becomes “Februarius”(February) without the masculine noun “mensis”.

To conclude, the affix “-aria” in “urticaria” has no meaning, as it is a simple suffix.

Best regards,
Maria