Polycythemic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to a condition in which the blood contains an abnormally large number of red blood cells, often linked to bone marrow disorders
2. Describing blood or a patient marked by an excess of red cells, a state that can thicken the blood and raise clotting risk
3. Characterized by a surplus of circulating red blood cells, typically arising from an overactive bone marrow or a related medical cause

Etymology: Its core is the Greek "kytos," which originally meant a hollow vessel or container, such as a jar. Greek writers later applied it to the small enclosed units of living tissue, and English "cell" follows the same path. Robert Hooke borrowed the word for the tiny chambers he saw in cork under his microscope, which he thought resembled a monastery's small rooms. The adjective combines "poly-," from Greek "polys" meaning many, with "kytos," and with the suffix "-emia," from Greek "haima," blood. Medicine uses "-emia" to name conditions of the blood, so the term describes blood containing too many cells. The final "-ic" is the common English adjective ending, borrowed from Greek "-ikos."