• Anaesthesia

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /ˈæn.É™s.θiːz.i.É™/
    • US IPA: /æn.É™s.ˈθi.Ê’É™/

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    - + aesthesia, from Ancient Greek ἀναισθησία, from ἀν- (an, "not") with αἴσθησις (aisthēsis, "sensation").

    Coined in 1846 CE by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in a letter to dentist William T. G. Morton, the first practitioner to publicly demonstrate the use of diethyl ether during surgery, writing:

  • Everybody wants to have a hand in a great discovery. All I will do is to give a hint or two as to names—or the name—to be applied to the state produced and the agent. The state should, I think, be called ‘Anaesthesia.’ This signifies insensibility—more particularly ... to objects of touch.

    • Small, Miriam Rossiter (1962). Oliver Wendell Homes. Twayne’s United States authors series, 29. New York: Twayne Publishers. OCLC 273508, p. 55

    Full definition of anaesthesia

    Noun

    anaesthesia

    (countable and uncountable; plural anaesthesias)
    1. (medicine) A method of preventing sensation, used to eliminate pain.
    2. Loss or prevention of pain, as caused by anesthesia.

    Related terms

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