Agalaktia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The failure of a mother to produce breast milk after giving birth, usually caused by a hormonal or glandular problem
2. A medical condition in which a new mother's breasts do not generate milk following delivery of a baby
3. Lack of lactation after childbirth, a rare disorder where the mammary glands fail to start producing milk

Etymology: Agalaktia is a medical term built entirely from Greek parts. The prefix "a-" means "without" and "gala" (genitive "galaktos") means "milk," so the literal sense is simply "without milk." It is the same pattern as "anemia" (without blood) or "anhydrous" (without water), and it is used for the failure of a mother to produce milk after childbirth. The word belongs to the later technical vocabulary of medicine rather than to ancient Greek usage. Physicians in the modern period drew on classical roots to name conditions precisely, so the term reflects the habit of building new scientific vocabulary from Greek, not an everyday word that has passed down unchanged from antiquity.

Synonyms: agalactia