Adenitis

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ædəˈnaɪtɪs/

Definitions

1. A medical condition marked by the swelling and inflammation of lymph glands due to various infections or immune responses
2. A pathological state involving the enlargement and tenderness of lymph nodes resulting from microbial invasion or systemic diseases
3. A disorder characterized by swollen lymph glands caused by infection or immune system activity

Etymology: Adenitis is a straightforward medical coinage built from two Greek-derived pieces. The first, "adeno-", comes from the Ancient Greek "adēn", meaning "gland", and the second, "-itis", is the suffix that medicine uses for inflammation. Its ancestry runs deeper than that suffix, though: "-itis" comes from the Greek "-ītis" and the feminine "-ītis" (as in "arthritis", where it attaches to "arthron", "joint"), and English picked it up through New Latin, where scholars used the form "-itis" to name inflamed conditions. Put together, the parts give a plain meaning: "inflammation of a gland." Because "adēn" was used in ancient Greek for glands generally, the word applies to the lymph nodes, which early anatomists grouped with the other glandular organs. The compound therefore describes exactly what the condition is, with no metaphor involved.

Synonyms: gland inflammation, lymphadenitis, node inflammation, glandular disease, immune response