Hyperlipemia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical condition in which the blood carries an abnormally high level of lipids such as triglycerides and cholesterol
2. An excessive concentration of fats in the bloodstream, often linked to diet, genetics or metabolic disorders
3. The presence of unusually large amounts of lipid material circulating in the blood, a risk factor for heart disease

Etymology: Hyperlipemia is a medical coinage built from Greek roots: "hyper-" meaning "over" or "excessive," "lipid" from the Greek "lipos," meaning fat, and "-emia," from the Greek "haima," meaning blood. Read literally, it names an excess of fat in the blood, which is exactly what doctors mean by it. The spelling "hyperlipemia" is an alternative to "hyperlipidemia," the form that the same parts would produce if "lipid" were used in its modern chemical sense. Both spellings describe the same condition, and both are built the same way, so a reader who knows the parts can work out the meaning without a dictionary.

Synonyms: hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia