Monday Word: Iatric

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

iatric [ahy-a-trik, ee-a-trik]

adjective
1. of or relating to a physician or medicine; medical

origins
1850–55; < Greek iātrikós of healing, equivalent to iātr ( ós ) healer ( iatro- ) + -ikos -ic

examples
1. My husband laughed in his unkind iatric way at a friend of mine who had said, `If anything should happen to me. . . . ' June 17, 2000 Spectator

2. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Montana specifically permit iatric euthanasia. Kevorkian: The Right to Die and Other 9th Amendment Freedoms 2009

3. 'You have an exorbitant auditory impediment,' replied the doctor, ever conscious of the necessity for maintaining a certain iatric mystique, and fully aware that 'a pea in the ear 'was unlikely to earn him any kudos. Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis, 2003

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yay! I chose this because it's one of those things I knew was a suffix (geriatric, pediatric) but I didn't know it could be used by itself (if that makes sense).

[full_metal_ox]

See also iatrogenic: disease caused by medical treatment.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

eee! yup!

[full_metal_ox]

Is the force of your reaction simply logophilic enthusiasm, or evidence that you’ve had occasion to use that word?

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

#2. for a brief period of time back when dinosaurs roamed I was a nurse. I saw more than I ever want to see of examples of that word unfortunately.