Traumatism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An external force can lead to harm or injury, affecting both physical well-being and mental health as a result of traumatic events
2. The impact of an outside agent may cause damage, which can manifest physically or psychologically due to adverse experiences
3. Harm resulting from an external factor can adversely affect both the physical state and psychological well-being due to distressing incidents

Etymology: In Greek, "trauma" meant a wound, and it came from a verb meaning to pierce. English borrowed the term in the 1600s for a bodily injury, and surgeons used it that way for centuries before it took on its psychological sense in the late 1800s. "Traumatism" is a later formation: English added the suffix "-ism," which in medical vocabulary names a condition or the state produced by something, as in "alcoholism" or "rheumatism." The result is a term for the condition of having been wounded, usually by an outside force. Because the suffix is so productive, "traumatism" was likely coined to sound like a clinical diagnosis, and it has stayed mostly within medical and technical writing. The word is rare and far less common than "trauma," so it is most often used when a writer wants to emphasise the condition itself rather than the event that caused it.

Synonyms: injury, trauma, wound