MEDYMOLOGY
ARBOR VITAE FOR HEALTH SCIENCES
Anesthesia
Etymology:
Gr. an-: “not” + Gr. aísthēsis: “sensation”
Coined in 1846 C.E. by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in a letter to dentist William T. G. Morton, the first practitioner to publicly demonstrate the use of ether during surgery, writing:
"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—more particularly ... to objects of touch."
Source: Small, Miriam Rossiter (1962). Oliver Wendell Homes. Twayne’s United States authors series, 29. New York: Twayne Publishers. OCLC 273508, page 55
Definition:
1) An artificial method of preventing/losing sensation, used to eliminate pain without causing loss of vital functions, by the administration of one or more agents which block pain impulses before transmitted to the brain.
2) The deliberate loss or prevention of conscious sensation, as caused by an anesthesiologist using anesthetic agents, to aid patients undergoing surgical procedures.
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