Sciaticas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A condition characterized by pain radiating along the path of a major nerve extending from the lower back down through the legs; relating to or affecting this nerve or the pain it causes; involving symptoms such as numbness or weakness in the affected leg
2. Describing nerve-related discomfort originating in the lumbar spine and spreading down the leg following the course of a large nerve; pertaining to or causing such neuralgia; manifesting as pain, tingling, or muscle weakness along this pathway
3. Referring to the painful syndrome involving irritation or compression of a significant nerve traveling from the lower back to the leg; connected to the symptoms of nerve pain and dysfunction; presenting with characteristic leg pain and sometimes sensory or motor deficits

Etymology: The plural "sciaticas" is simply the countable form of "sciatica," the name for pain running from the lower back down the leg, usually caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve. Strictly, the plural is used when speaking of several separate cases or episodes. The root of the word is a hip. In ancient Greek, "iskhion" meant "hip" or the hip joint, and "iskhiadikos" was the adjective built from it, describing things connected with the hip. The Greek physicians applied the adjective to pain felt in that region, and the Latin writers who inherited the medical vocabulary turned it into "sciaticus" and then the feminine noun "sciatica," meaning hip disease or hip pain. English borrowed the word in the Late Middle English period, when it was taken from Late Latin. The original sense stayed close to the hip, which is why the name points to a body part rather than to the nerve that now defines the condition.

Synonyms: sciatica