Ancient Medical Glossary version 2/20/18

Abscess – a pocket of pus, often hot and painful to the touch due to pressure. Can burst on its own, or
with help (lancing).

Acute – a condition that appears quickly and progresses rapidly toward crisis. See also chronic.

Anuria – inability to urinate, either due to blockage or a lack of urine.

Aphthae – Small ulcers of the mouth and tongue, often depressed and white in the center. Can occur
due to all sorts of oral infections and conditions; you may have heard them called canker sores.

Brain fever – essentially meningitis; an infectious process that causes neurological symptoms and
damage.

Carbuncle – a cluster of boils. A boil is a deep, painful pus-filled bump under the skin. The clusters occur
when multiple hair follicles become infected in an area.

Causis – high fever, probably hot (we’re guessing from context; this is derived from the Greek word for
“burn up”).

Cancer – A tumor (see tumor) fed by a network of swollen veins. While this does include some forms of
what we now also call cancer, without micropathology, there was no way to distinguish benign from
carcinogenic tumors. Often what you see ancients calling “cancer” would include both benign and
malignant tumors fitting this description. There is no secret hidden cure for cancer in these texts. Trust
me, we checked. Some chemicals discovered have been useful, though.

Chronic – developing and persisting over time. Its opposite is acute.

Clyster – an enema delivered by means of a large syringe-type instrument that forces liquid more deeply
into the bowel and intestine.

Colic – severe abdominal pain, often due to cramping, blockage, gas buildup, ulceration, etc. Associated
with prolonged unexplained crying in infants, but anyone can get it. See also Ileus.

Coma – an unconscious, unresponsive state.

Concocted – literally “cooked,” meaning unsure. Possibly consistent in color and texture.

Consumption – any wasting disease with cough, usually tuberculosis

Crisis – a peak in symptoms after which a patient either improves or dies. There can be many in a
disease. These days were felt to be especially important to mark when deciding when a physician should
and should not offer certain interventions.

Critical days – the days on which an illness reaches crisis (above). Ancient physicians believed that the
pattern of these days was significant to prognosis (below).

Cyst – a capsule formed by the body around pus or dead skin tissue.

Delirium – mental disturbance or distress. Inability to think clearly or accurately perceive surroundings,
often with behavioral and verbal outbursts. Common symptom in high fever.
Diuresis – Passing large amounts of urine. A diuretic medicine is one that stimulates urine production,
often to resolve fluid retention or clear bladder inflammation

Dropsy – swelling of the soft tissue due to retention of fluids and poor excretory function or circulation
failures.

Dysentery – Inflammation of the intestines (due to a large number of agents, infectious, parasitic, and
nutritional) resulting in diarrhea with blood and mucus.

Enteritis – Inflammation of the small intestine. Symptoms include cramping, abdominal pain, diarrhea,
dehydration, fever, nausea, and weight loss.

Enema – a liquid (water or oil based, hot or cold) used to flush out the bowel. Administered in ancient
times with gravity-fed bladders and tubes or a large syringe. See also clyster.

Epistaxis – nosebleed

Erysipelas – Inflammatory reddened, puffy, but otherwise uniform rash of the skin, if we’re talking about
ancient terminology. Today, we further specify that it is an infection of the surface layers of the skin,
often with Strep. If left untreated (or exacerbated) the skin can slough off.

Expectoration – while this can include spitting saliva, in medical terminology it generally refers to
coughing up mucus from the lungs. Drugs that loosen and increase lung secretions are called
expectorants (eg. Mucinex).

Fevers – See also crisis, critical days, paroxysm. High body temperature, either constant or with spikes
and remissions, in the following patterns:

 Quotidian = daily
 Noctournal = nightly
 Tertian = every other day |-|-|-| etc.
 Quartan = every third day |- -|- -|- -| etc.

Flaccid – limp, floppy.

Flatulent – gassy, characterized by frequent and explosive farting.

Haemorrhage – AKA Hemorrhage; any sudden flow of blood from a burst vessel. In our authors, this
could refer to a sudden flow of blood from the bowel, uterus, stomach, or nose (see epistaxis.)

Hemiplegia – paralysis on one side of the body (left vs. right). A symptom common to stoke and
migraine cause by interruption/ damage to the opposite side of the brain from the paralysis, though
ancient people hadn’t gotten that far with brain imaging yet.

Herpetic lesion – Today, this refers to the lesion of a Herpes simplex infection. Ancient doctors didn’t
know about the herpes virus, so in our text, this refers to clusters of fluid-filled blister-like lesions.

Hypochondrium – Abdominal area below the diaphragm and below the ribs. See abdominal diagram at
the end of this handout.

Ileus – acute abdominal pain caused by a bowel obstruction. See also colic.
Inflammation – Before germ theory, it is inappropriate to use “infection” – before we knew that
reddening, swelling, and pus formation was an infectious process, we referred to any such swelling/
reddening/ puffiness as inflammation.

Infection – not a term used before germ theory. It means “the result of something that has gotten
inside,” i.e. the presence of a foreign pathogen causing disease. Unless you know that disease is often
caused by microbes, you can’t refer to anyone as “infected” with such microbes.

Jaundice – yellowing of the skin and mucus membranes due to high bilirubin levels. Often, but not
always, a sign of liver distress.

Laxative – Something that stimulates the bowel to move, either by means of stimulating the gut muscle,
softening stool, or lubricating the digestive tract.

Lochia – discharge of blood and fluid following childbirth. Lasts 4-6 weeks following birth, bloody
initially, then rusty, then whiteish yellow as the cervix heals.

Lucidity – mental clarity, healthy contact with one’s reality and surroundings.

Opisthotony – tightening of the muscles of the back so that the spine effectively bends backwards.
Often a sign of meningitis. So it’s really bad.

Opthalmia – inflammation (redness, swelling) of the eyes.

Paralysis – inability to move (when associated with fever, may be a description of poliomyelitis).

Paroxysm – a sudden worsening of symptoms; usually a fever spike followed by shivering chills.

Parturition – giving birth.

Pessary – an item, often wax-based and medicated, placed into the vagina to deliver medication and/ or
support the uterus. Solid pessaries in the ancient world would be made of bronze, wood, or ivory, and
sometimes wrapped in medicated wool, sponge, or linen. See also suppository.

Prognosis – a prediction about whether the patient will recover, and how long it will take to do so. Still a
cornerstone of diagnostic practice. From the Greek pro (before) and gnosis (knowledge).

Pudendal region – a nice way of saying “crotch” or “front and bottom of groin.” Fun fact: pudenda in
Latin means “that of which one must be ashamed.”

Purgative – anything that induces bowel movements. This can vary from gentle laxative effects to severe
abdominal contraction and expulsion.

Pus – cloudy or opaque fluid that forms (we know now) as a result of the body’s attempt to trap and
fight off infection. Often white, yellow, green, or brown, and can smell quite nasty. Consists of immune
system cells, dead tissue, and dead/ dying bacteria mixed with leaked fluid from the blood vessels.

Rigor – shivering, shaking, and “the chills” that come with high fever.

Ripe – often used of pus, sputum, or other body fluids. Seems to indicate a fluid that has thickened to
the point of being more easily coughed up/ drained/ squeezed/ voided.
Septic – Not an ancient concept as it relies on germ theory; an infected body part is said to be “septic,”
and a substance that clears infectious agents is “antiseptic.” A person who is septic has an infection that
has entered the central blood supply. You don’t want to get septic.

Strangury – difficulty or inability to void the bladder combined with a strong urge to pee, but only little
or no urine coming out. Very painful.

Stupor – the state of groggy semi-consciousness between coma and lucidity.

Stye – infection in the root of an eyelash.

Supporation – the process of pus formation. See also pus.

Suppository – a wax-based object put into the rectum to deliver medication or lubricate the bowel. See
also pessary.

Tenesmus – cramping rectal pain. The feeling of having a full bowel that one cannot void.

Tumor – in ancient medicine, any knobby swelling of a body part. This can include infections, abscesses,
cysts, or pretty much anything up to and including cancerous tumors. See also cancer.