Angiogenic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the process by which new blood vessels grow out from existing vascular tissue, as in healing or tumor development
2. Describing something that promotes or involves the growth of fresh capillaries and vessels from pre-existing ones in the body
3. Involved in or producing the development of new blood vessels, a process central to wound repair and cancer growth

Etymology: Angiogenic is a technical coinage built from two Greek-derived pieces. The first, "angio-", comes from Ancient Greek "angeîon", a diminutive-style word meaning "vessel" or "receptacle", itself formed from "ángos", a container or jar. In modern medicine "angio-" names blood and lymph vessels, so an angiogram is an image of vessels. The second piece, "-genic", descends from Ancient Greek "-genḗs", meaning "producing" or "born of", from "génos", birth or kind. English took "-genic" through French "-gène" and Latin "-icus", so it carries the sense of "producing or generating" whatever the first half names. Put together, the word describes something that generates new blood vessels. The earlier "angio-" element is much older than the medical sense: Greeks used "angeîon" for ordinary containers, long before anyone studied circulation. The medical use is the modern layer, added to a classical stem.