Autotoxicosis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical condition resulting from the detrimental effects of toxic substances that are produced internally, especially during metabolic anomalies
2. A health issue arising from the harmful impact of toxins generated by the body, often linked to metabolic disorders
3. A pathological state caused by the adverse effects of self-produced toxins, particularly during metabolic dysfunctions

Etymology: Autotoxicosis is built from two parts. The first, "auto-", comes from the Greek "autos", meaning "self", and gives the sense of something arising from within the same body. The second, "toxicosis", is a medical term for a condition caused by a poison, formed from the Greek "toxikon", the poison in which arrows were dipped, and the suffix "-osis", used for abnormal or diseased states. Put together, the word names a state of poisoning produced by substances the body makes itself, rather than by anything taken in from outside. The "-osis" ending is the key to how the word reads: it marks a condition rather than a thing. So "toxicosis" names the illness of being poisoned, and the prefix "auto-" specifies that the poison originates in the patient. Because the parts are transparent, the meaning of the whole term follows directly from them.

Synonyms: self-poisoning