If “Hypo-” Means “Under,” What is the “Chondria” in “Hypochondria”?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Good morning. My name is Lucy from Suffolk, Virginia. Virginia is for lovers.

Virginia is for lovers. Welcome to the show, Lucy.

My word is when somebody goes to the doctor and they’re very hypochondriac, hypo, H-Y-P-O, I believe.

Why aren’t they hyper, H-Y-P-E-R, like hyperthermic or hypothermic?

And that’s my question.

Well, I’m really excited to talk about this because it involves Greek prefixes, which I love talking about.

And there are two different Greek prefixes here, one of which is hyper, which means over, and we get hyper from that.

And the other Greek prefix is chupo, which means under.

And so the hyper, the hyper with H-Y-P-E-R, meaning over, is part of words like hyperactive.

You know, you’re overactive.

Or if you’re hypersensitive, you’re overly sensitive.

And the hypo, the hypo in English, H-Y-P-O, means under.

And as you mentioned, hypothermia is a perfect example of that.

It’s like being underheated, basically.

Or think about the term hypodermic. If you’re in the medical profession, you know that hypodermic is a needle that goes under your dermis, under your skin. Hypodermic. So two different beginnings there, hyper and hypo.

And the other part of the word hypochondria comes from the Greek word chondros, which means gristle or cartilage.

And this is really cool because specifically in Greek, it refers to the cartilage in the breastbone.

And under the chondros, under the cartilage of the breastbone, are the organs of the upper abdomen behind the ribs that include the liver and the gallbladder and the spleen.

And it used to be that those organs generated black bile and vapors and melancholia just made you feel terrible.

And so the hypochondria comes from that.

It’s the idea of these organs under the breastbone that supposedly, at least back in the 14th and 15th century, people thought generated feelings of feeling terrible.

Okay. So when somebody’s hypochondriac, they want to squelch those.

Well, yeah, and they just feel a malaise or they are thinking that there’s something wrong with them and there’s not.

So under the cartilage was the source of this illness, and that’s kind of how it’s connected to the idea that hypochondria is about feeling ill today.

Oh, okay.

Okay, well, I’m going to think of some more words.

Well, please do, and call us again, Lucy.

We’d love that.

Yeah, we appreciate it.

Okay, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Lucy.