Varix

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A swollen and twisted blood vessel that results from prolonged increased pressure within the vein, usually affecting the legs
2. An enlarged and abnormally shaped vein that has become distorted, often due to venous circulation problems
3. A dilated and often tortuous vein caused by increased venous pressure, commonly associated with poor blood flow in lower extremities

Etymology: The Latin "varix" meant a swollen, knotted vein, and English borrowed it in its original medical sense. Its ancestry reaches back to the Proto-Indo-European root "*wers-", meaning "to turn" or "to rise," which the Old Church Slavonic "vrĭxŭ" carried into the sense of a "top" or "peak." The Greek "hérma," meaning a reef or rock jutting upward, belongs to the same family, so the idea of something raised or protruding is at the heart of the word. The Latin noun was then applied to the body's tangled veins, where the image of a knotted, bulging twist fits well. Medical writers kept the word unchanged, and English took it over as a technical term for the swollen veins that form when blood pools under sustained pressure, most often in the legs.

Synonyms: vein, blood vessel, vascular structure