Cephalodynia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A health condition that signifies discomfort localized in the head, which may stem from numerous identifiable medical problems
2. A term indicating head-related pain that could arise from a diverse range of physiological causes
3. A medical term describing pain experienced in the head that might result from various underlying health issues

Etymology: Cephalodynia is a plain technical coinage, built in the medical vocabulary of the 19th and 20th centuries from two Greek elements rather than inherited from classical usage. The first element, "kephalē", meant "head", and it gives English words such as cephalic and cephalopod. The second, "odynē", meant "pain" or "suffering", and it appears in a family of medical terms such as otodynia (earache) and gastrodynia (stomach pain), where it is attached to the Greek word for the body part concerned. Ancient Greek writers did not use this compound, so it should be read as a modern scientific label put together from classical building blocks. Its sense is exactly what the parts suggest: a pain located in the head. Its literal meaning therefore needs no reinterpretation, and the word has stayed close to its original, clinical use.

Synonyms: headache, migraine

Antonyms: relief