Iridiagnosis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice of assessing health conditions by observing patterns and colors in the iris of the eye
2. A method of evaluating bodily health through detailed inspection of the eye's iris to detect ailments
3. A diagnostic approach that interprets changes in the iris to identify possible diseases or abnormalities

Etymology: Iridiagnosis is a shortened form of "iridodiagnosis," a practitioner's method of reading the health of the body from the coloured ring of the eye. Its first part, "irido-," comes from the Greek "iris," meaning the rainbow or the coloured membrane of the eye, which gave the eye's coloured ring its name. The second part is "diagnosis," which Greek formed from "dia," meaning "through" or "apart," and "gignōskein," meaning "to know," so that a diagnosis is literally a knowing-through, a discernment that separates one condition from another. Modern English built this compound from those classical parts, so it is a coinage rather than an ancient term. Ancient Greek physicians had no word like it, since the idea of mapping organs onto the iris is a later invention. The form "iridiagnosis" is an alternative to the longer "iridodiagnosis," which was made by joining "irido-" to "diagnosis" in the same way as other English compounds built from Greek roots.