Oligohidrosis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical condition characterized by abnormally reduced sweating, which can result from various physiological or pathological factors
2. The phenomenon where there is an insufficient secretion of sweat, often impacting thermoregulation and skin health
3. A rare disorder that involves significantly decreased perspiration, potentially leading to heat intolerance and related complications

Etymology: Oligohidrosis is a modern medical coinage, built in the scientific vocabulary of recent centuries from classical building blocks rather than handed down from ancient physicians. Its first element, "oligo-", comes from the Greek "oligos", meaning "few" or "little", and it is the same prefix that appears in words like oligarchy, where rule belongs to a small group. The second element, "hidrosis", is a New Latin formation from the Greek "hidrōs", meaning "sweat", with the suffix "-osis", used in medicine for a diseased or abnormal condition. Put together, the term describes a state of producing too little sweat. The pattern is typical of medical vocabulary. Physicians writing in Latin and then in English combined Greek and Latin parts to name conditions precisely, so a reader can work out the meaning from the pieces. Anyone who has met "hyperhidrosis", the opposite condition of excessive sweating, will recognise the shared stem and the contrasting prefix, "hyper-" meaning "over" and "oligo-" meaning "few".