you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I wonder whether the two words are related, whether English took a Latin word from generic pain and repurposed it for a very specific pain

Anyway it's a commonly known word in English because the common diet causes heart disease so we hear about angina from elderly relatives

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (1 child)

    Must be vessel-inflammation or something similar in latin. Angiogenesis -> blood vessel formation (angio being blood vessel), -ina is a suffix for inflammation, therefore angina -> blood vessel inflammation

    This is speculative from my working knowledge of some biological terms, I haven't looked up the etymology (yet)

    edit after google:

    1. there are many medical anginas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angina_(disambiguation)

    2. I was right for the wrong reasons. The etymology is greek: ankhonē "a strangling". Originally it referred to the aforementioned throat infection in english, then evolved into chest pain. https://www.etymonline.com/word/angina

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago

    I looked it up, English used to use it for strep throat or tonsillitis. Then 'angina of the chest' was used and since we have other words for strep throat and tonsillitis angina came to exclusively mean heart pain

  • source
  • parent