Macrosomia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical condition characterized by excessive fetal growth leading to an unusually high birth weight at delivery
2. A condition in pregnancy where the fetus grows significantly larger than average, producing a heavy baby at birth
3. An abnormal prenatal growth pattern causing newborns to have a birth weight well above typical standards

Etymology: Macrosomia is a modern medical coinage, built in the 19th or 20th century from the Greek roots "makros" (large) and "soma" (body). Its formation is transparent: the same combining pattern appears in many clinical terms, and the word describes a body that is large relative to expectation, here a fetus heavier than its gestational age would predict. Ancient Greeks and Romans had no such word, so the term reflects the modern clinical need to name a condition that obstetric practice began to measure and track. The classical elements are old, but the compound itself belongs to the vocabulary of medicine.

Synonyms: large for gestational age, INVALID, INVALID, INVALID, INVALID