The patient has dysphagia . . . huh?

I might react by responding, “That sounds Greek to me!” In other words, I don’t honestly don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense.

In the case of dysphagia, it’s literally a Greek word and probably hard to pronounce (dis-fay-gee-a) for most folks. The roots of the word are relatively simple. Dys is a prefix for, “No.” Think of the more commonly used dysfunctional or—because of novels like the Hunger Games series—an unsettling future world referred to as a dystopia. Dysfunction = no function. Dystopia = no good place.

The suffix phagia, though more obscure, is also relatively simple: eating. Read More →

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