Orthopedy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical specialty that addresses disorders of the musculoskeletal system while focusing on correcting skeletal deformities and managing associated issues
2. This field of medicine is concerned with treating bone and joint deformities and encompasses the diagnosis and care of musculoskeletal conditions
3. This branch of medicine specializes in the treatment and correction of skeletal disorders and their related complications within the musculoskeletal system

Etymology: The most striking thing about "orthopedy" is that it was coined from Greek words meaning something quite different from what the modern term covers. "Paideia" meant upbringing, education and training of a child, and the word was combined with "ortho-", meaning straight or correct, to name a method of straightening the bodies of children. The idea was that a crooked child could be trained or corrected into proper shape, which is why the field began as the treatment of deformities in young patients. Over time the sense of "paideia" was lost to the medical meaning, and the word came to mean the treatment of bone and muscle problems in people of any age. "Orthopedy" is the older spelling of "orthopedics", the form that shows the word's Greek construction more directly, with the "-pedy" ending keeping the link to child-rearing that the modern term has largely lost.