Uroscopies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An examination of the urine to determine its composition or diagnose health conditions
2. A diagnostic procedure involving the analysis of urine samples to identify various substances and health indicators
3. The clinical practice of scrutinizing urine for diagnostic purposes, revealing insights into health and potential diseases

Etymology: Uroscopy was practised as a diagnostic method long before anyone gave it a name built from Greek. Physicians of the medieval period examined the colour, clarity and smell of a patient's urine in glass flasks, and that inspection was thought to reveal the state of the body. The English term is a compound: "uro-", from Greek "oûron", meaning urine, joined to "-scopy", from Greek "skopeîn" and the noun "skopós", meaning to look at or observe. The same second element appears in "microscopy" and "telescopy", so uroscopy is literally "urine-looking." The plural "uroscopies" is simply the regular form of the noun for more than one such examination, or for the practice viewed across cases. The first element traces back to the Greek verb "ouréō", to urinate, which is related to the same ancient root behind the word for urine itself.