Aneurysms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A balloon-like bulge formed in a weakened area of a blood vessel wall
2. An enlargement of a blood vessel caused by a defect or weakness in its wall
3. A sac-like dilation in a blood vessel that results from the vessel wall's structural failure

Etymology: "Aneurysms" is the plural of "aneurysm," and the word's core meaning is literal: it comes from Ancient Greek "aneúrusma," meaning "a widening" or "a dilation." That Greek noun was built from "aneurúnō," "to dilate," which combines "aná," "up," with "eurús," "wide." So the word's underlying image is something being stretched outward, a sense that fits the swelling of a blood vessel that bulges because its wall has weakened. The Greek source word was not a medical term in its own day, and the English medical sense was formed later from that classical material. Doctors reached for Greek roots when they needed precise names for conditions, which is why a term describing a bulging vessel borrows a vocabulary of "up" and "wide" rather than an everyday English image.

Synonyms: bulges, outpouchings