Opilation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An obstruction or blockage in a passage of the body, such as one caused by a build-up of material
2. The act or condition of clogging a bodily channel so that the flow through it is impeded
3. A blockage that closes or chokes off a narrow passage, a term used mainly in older medical writing

Etymology: Opilation is a medical term for an obstruction in a passage of the body, and its history runs through a Latin verb meaning "to block up." The Latin "opilare" was built from "ob-" ("against, in the way") and "pilare," a rare verb from "pila," meaning "pillar" or "pile," so the core sense is to heap something up in the path. Latin writers used "opilare" in its ordinary sense of stopping up or filling a gap, and physicians later borrowed the idea for blockages in the body. English took the noun from the same Latin source, and it has stayed a specialist word, most often seen in older medical writing rather than everyday speech. Its entry into English is recorded in early modern medical texts, when writers were drawing heavily on Latin for technical vocabulary. Because the word is formed transparently from a familiar Latin root, its meaning has changed little since then.

Synonyms: obstruction, blockage, constipation