DictionaryRoot: -ia
Greek
-ia
a state, quality, or condition
Forms
- -ia
Origin
An old Greek noun ending with earlier Indo-European ancestry.
Note
Modern scientific names reuse it widely; the ending itself does not name a disease or a particular condition.
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noun
pneumonia
noo-MOH-nee-uh/nuːˈməʊniə/
A lung infection that inflames the air sacs and can make breathing difficult.
Etymology
The lung root identifies the organ affected: pneumonia names inflammation within lung tissue, rather than in the bronchial tubes or the membrane covering the lungs.