Neuropsychiatrist

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical doctor who diagnoses and treats disorders of both the nervous system and the mind, combining neurology with psychiatry
2. A physician trained to address conditions affecting the brain and behavior, including those involving the nerves and mental health
3. A specialist in medicine who studies and treats illnesses that touch both the brain's structure and a person's psychological wellbeing

Etymology: "Neuropsychiatrist" is a plain compound: "neuro-", from Greek "neuron" meaning "sinew" or "nerve," joined to "psychiatrist," a physician who treats disorders of the mind. The combination names a doctor who works on both the nervous system and mental illness, two fields that were once studied largely apart. The neuro- element reaches back to ancient Greek, where "neuron" first meant a sinew or tendon before it came to mean a nerve. "Psychiatrist" is itself a modern coinage built from Greek "psyche" (soul, mind) and "iatros" (physician), so the word as a whole stacks two Greek-derived building blocks onto a relatively recent professional label.