Where does “osteomyelitis” come from?
Osteomyelitis comes from English -itis, Ancient Greek μυελός (myelós, "marrow"), and Ancient Greek -ῖτις (-îtis, "inflammation of"), denoting inflammation of bone marrow.
osteomyelitis (English): An infection of the bone
Ancestry of “osteomyelitis”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | osteo- | bone |
| 2 | Ancient Greek | ὀστέον | bone; bones of the earth = rock; stone of fruit |
| 3 | Ancient Greek | κλάσις | breaking, fracture; bending of the knee joint,... |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | -σῐς | "suffix forming nouns" |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | -τις | Earlier form of -σις , retained after dentals δ,... |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -tis | Derives abstract/action nouns from verb roots |