Radiography

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A method of creating images of the inside of objects, especially the human body, by passing X-rays through them and capturing the result on a sensitive surface
2. The process of obtaining visual representations of internal structures by exposing a subject to X-rays and recording the resulting shadows
3. A diagnostic or inspection technique that uses X-ray radiation to produce visual images of the internal features of an object or organism

Etymology: Radiography is a modern coinage built from two parts: "radio-", from Latin "radius" meaning "ray" (the same Latin root behind "radiate" and "radiant"), and "-graphy", from Ancient Greek "graphḗ", meaning "writing" or "drawing," which comes from the verb "grắphō," "to write." Put together, the literal sense is "writing with rays," a fitting description of a process that draws pictures with X-rays. The Greek element did not start life as a suffix. In Ancient Greek, "-graphia" was attached to words to name a skill or a technique of writing or describing, as in "geographia," "earth-describing." English took the suffix from French, where "-graphie" had already been used to form names of descriptive and technical arts, and it became a productive ending for naming methods of recording. Radiography follows that pattern: the "ray" half and the "writing" half were joined to name a new technique.

Synonyms: X-ray imaging, radiologic imaging