Dermatologies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The branch of medicine focused on the study and treatment of skin disorders and diseases
2. A medical field dedicated to understanding, diagnosing, and managing conditions affecting the skin, hair, and nails
3. The scientific discipline concerned with identifying and treating various skin-related ailments and conditions

Etymology: "Dermatologies" is the plural of "dermatology," so its history is the history of that base word. "Dermatology" was formed in the 19th century from the Greek "derma," meaning skin, and "-logia," meaning the study or discussion of something, a suffix that also gives English words like "biology" and "geology." Greek "derma" comes from the verb "derein," meaning "to flay," so the skin was named for being stripped off, though the -ology part was a later addition to a word that had only a physical sense. The plural form is rarely used in everyday English, since "dermatology" is normally treated as an uncountable field of study. It appears mostly when someone refers to several distinct branches or specialist areas within the discipline.