rachitis
/rəˈkʌɪtɪs
/noun
Old-fashioned medical term for rickets.
Derivatives
rachitic
- A 6 month old girl with potentially lethal hypophophatasia had bone marrow transplanted from a healthy sister, with rapid reversal of radiographic abnormalities and healing of ‘rachitic’ defects.
- Then in the 1920s it was shown that rachitic children could not absorb calcium, from which it was concluded, not unnaturally, that this malabsorption of calcium was the cause of the rickets.
Origin
Early 18th century: modern Latin, from Greek rhakhitis, from rhakhis 'spine'.