arthritis

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin arthrītis (“pain in the joints, gout”),^[2][3][4] recorded in Latin from the 3rd century and earlier only as a Greek word,^[2] from Ancient Greek ἀρθρῖτις (arthrîtis, “(disease) of the joints”), with νόσος (nósos, “disease”) understood.^[3][5][4] The Greek word is the feminine of the adjective ἀρθρίτης (arthrítēs, “pertaining to the joints”),^[3][5] from ἄρθρον (árthron, “joint”) and the suffix -ῖτις (-îtis).^[2][5][6] Etymonline and Ayto trace the Greek noun to Proto-Indo-European *ar- (“to fit together”),^[3][7] which Ayto says also produced artus (“limb”), the source of article, as well as arm and art.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A painful disease of the joints, especially gout: 1543, in Traheron's Interpretation of Straunge Wordes, a glossary to a translation.^[2][8] Barnhart dates the first record to 1544.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The noun came late because the adjective did its work first: Middle English had the noun arthetica before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus, and the adjective artetik by 1400, through goute artetique (“arthritic gout”) and gutta artetica.^[4][3] For almost 150 years forms of that adjective were also used as nouns, so no other noun was needed.^[4] The OED records arthritic from about 1425, first in the sense "relating to gout".^[2] In early use arthritis meant above all gout,^[2][9] and Johnson (1755) still defined it as any disorder of the joints, "but the gout most particularly".^[10] Ayto notes that Greek -itis was at first simply an adjectival suffix, so that arthritis meant "of the joints";^[7] according to Barnhart, it was from borrowings such as arthritis and nephritis that the suffix -itis was abstracted in the 19th century to mean "inflammation".^[4] The word then came to mean inflammation of a joint in general, and also a particular type of it, such as rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis.^[2][11][8]

Timeline

• before 1398 – the earlier Middle English noun arthetica, in Trevisa.^[4][3]
• c. 1425 – the adjective arthritic, relating to gout.^[2]
• 1543 – arthritis, painful disease of the joints, especially gout.^[2][8]
• 1544 – first record according to Barnhart.^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson: any disorder of the joints, especially gout.^[10]
• 19th century – -itis abstracted from such words to mean inflammation.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Inflammation of one or more joints, causing pain, swelling and stiffness: Arthritis in her knees made the stairs difficult.^[12][8][2]
2. A particular form of this condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis.^[8][11][2]

Word family

• arthritic
• arthritically
• osteoarthritis
• polyarthritis
• rheumatoid arthritis

Related words

• arthropod
• article
• arm
• art
• -itis

Usage notes

The plural, used of types or cases of the disease, is arthritides.^[8][11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins