(dīˌə-bēˈtĭs, -tēz)
noun Any of several metabolic disorders marked by excessive discharge of urine and persistent thirst, especially one of the two types of diabetes mellitus.
Word History: Diabetes is named for one of its distressing symptoms. The disease was known to the Greeks as
diabētēs, a word derived from the verb
diabainein, made up of the prefix
dia-, “across, apart,” and the word
bainein, “to walk, stand.” The verb
diabeinein meant “to stride, walk, or stand with legs asunder”; hence, its derivative
diabētēs meant “one that straddles,” or specifically “a compass, siphon.” The sense “siphon” gave rise to the use of
diabētēs as the name for a disease involving the discharge of excessive amounts of urine.
Diabetes is first recorded in English, in the form
diabete, in a medical text written around 1425.
