anemia

Where does the word "anemia" come from? It comes from Greek anaimia, and was adopted directly into English (1820s).

Anemia’s story begins in Greek: anaimia meant “lack of blood.” Greek, 'an-', without, plus 'haima', blood. It reached English by 1820s as anemia. The same Greek root 'haima' (blood) gave English a whole family of blood-disorder terms ending in '-emia', like leukemia and septicemia. Today, anemia means a shortage of red blood cells.

1. Stage 1 · Greek · ancient anaimia "lack of blood", Greek, 'an-', without, plus 'haima', blood.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1820s anemia "lack of blood", the same Greek root 'haima' (blood) gave English a whole family of blood-disorder terms ending in '-emia', like leukemia and septicemia.