Sphacel

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Death of living tissue, especially in a part of the body, caused by a loss of blood supply
2. The decay and blackening of a body part that has lost its circulation and is no longer alive
3. Necrosis of tissue, a condition in which a part of the body dies and turns dark from lack of blood

Etymology: The Greek "sphakelos" meant a gangrenous or mortified state of flesh, and it was the root of this English term for dead tissue. The Greek word was itself used by physicians for the blackened, decaying condition of a limb or wound that had lost its blood supply. English took the word in its medical sense, and it remains a specialist term for tissue that has died while still attached to a living body, most often in cases of infection, frostbite, or a severed blood vessel. The French form "sphacèle" was the immediate model for many European medical writers, which is why the English and French words look so alike. Because the term stayed firmly in clinical language, it never drifted far from its original meaning, unlike many older medical words that broadened into everyday speech.