Anaesthesia

Anaesthesia is defined as "1. loss of sensation, esp. tactile sensibility, induced by disease, injury, acupuncture, or an anesthetic. 2. Insensibility to pain, induced by an anesthetic. 3. A drug that induces partial or total loss of sensation in the body and may be topical, local, regional, or general." The word is ultimately Greek in origin and can be broken down to an- (without) and aisthesis (feeling). In 1846 Oliver Wendell Holmes contextualized the word as we use it today. He wrote, "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. . . . The adjective will be 'Anaesthetic.' Thus we might say the state of Anaesthesia or the anaesthetic state." Doctors specializing in this field are called anaesthesiologists and the study of anaesthesia is anaesthesiology.

Definition and word history: AHD
Photo source: http://anesthesioboist.blogspot.com/2008/10/ether-day-2008.html