Sclerosis

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /skləˈɹəʊsɪs/

Definitions

1. a pathological hardening or thickening of body tissue, particularly affecting nerve fibers or arterial walls
2. abnormal stiffening and loss of elasticity in tissues or organs due to fibrosis or calcification
3. a disease process involving progressive hardening and degeneration of specific tissues or organs in the body

Etymology: The Greek root behind "sclerosis" is "sklērós", meaning "hard," and the Greeks built from it a verb, "sklēróō," meaning "to harden." From that verb came "sklērōsis," a noun for the act or process of hardening. The word is a classic example of Greek medical vocabulary: its ending "-osis" was commonly used to name a condition or process, so the term describes a state of becoming hard. English took the word over from this Greek base, and the modern medical sense of hardening of tissue follows the original meaning closely. The "sclero-" element that appears in many later medical terms, such as scleroderma, comes from the same Greek root, which is why the word is easy to recognise as part of a larger family of technical vocabulary.