Lipidemic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or characterized by an abnormal level of lipids in the blood; pertaining to conditions involving excessive fats or cholesterol circulating within the bloodstream; describing a state marked by irregular lipid metabolism causing elevated blood fat content
2. Concerning the presence or regulation of fats in the bloodstream; involving disorders or conditions with excess fatty substances in blood; referring to pathological levels of lipids impacting health
3. Associated with abnormal lipid concentrations in the circulatory system; indicative of metabolic imbalances producing elevated blood fats; connected to medical states where blood lipids exceed normal amounts

Etymology: Read literally, this term says "fat in the blood." It is built from "lipid," from Greek "lipos," meaning fat, and the suffix "-emic," from Greek "haima," meaning blood. The same blood root sits inside "anemic," which combines "an-" (not) with "haima" to describe blood lacking in red cells. So the two words are close relatives, one describing too little of the blood's substance and the other too much of a different one. "Lipidemic" is a modern medical formation rather than an ancient one. It is derived from "lipidemia," the clinical term for elevated lipids in the bloodstream, and it was coined to describe a condition that physicians could measure in the blood but had no older everyday name for. Its meaning is narrow: it describes states, conditions, or patients in which blood fats exceed normal levels, and it is used almost only in clinical and research writing.

Synonyms: lipid-related, fatty, hyperlipidemic, fatty-acid-related, cholesterol-related

Antonyms: nonlipidemic, lipid-free