Etymograph

English

analgesia

Analgesia comes from Ancient Greek ἀναλγησίᾱ ‘want of feeling, insensibility’, from ἀλγέω ‘feel bodily pain, suffer’, and ultimately from ᾰ̓́λγος.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEᾰ̓́λγος‘pain of the body or mind’
  2. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀλγέωalgéō‘feel bodily pain, suffer’
  3. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀνάλγητος‘Insensible to pain or danger’
  4. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀναλγησίᾱanalgēsíā‘want of feeling, insensibility’
  5. New Latinc. 1500–1900analgēsia
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1988analgesia

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEᾰ̓́λγος‘pain of the body or mind’
  2. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀλγέωalgéō‘feel bodily pain, suffer’
  3. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀνάλγητος‘Insensible to pain or danger’
  4. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀναλγησίᾱanalgēsíā‘want of feeling, insensibility’
  5. New Latinc. 1500–1900analgēsia
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1988analgesia

Earliest quotation: 1988, William Styron, Why Primo Levi Need Not Have Died: “Most physical distress yields to some analgesia—not so depression.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg- ‘to care’

intelligence, intellectual, intelligent, leech, 11 more

Today it means

noun The inability to feel pain.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́λγος / analgesia

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