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DictionaryRoot: -ismos
Greek

-ismos

an action, practice, or system

Forms

  • -ismos
  • -ism — The ending shortened through Latin, French, and English.

Origin

Greek -ismos formed nouns associated with verbs, including many in -izein.

Note

The familiar “system of belief” use is one later development, not its only original function.

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A close longitudinal cutaway of a blood vessel shows a dark-red clot lodged at a narrowing, plugging the lumen, with red blood cells crowded upstream and almost none downstream.
noun

embolism

EM-buh-liz-um/ˈembəlɪzəm/

Blockage of a blood vessel by a clot or other material carried through the bloodstream.

Etymology
emGreekin, within
+bolGreekthrow or cast
+ismGreekan action, practice, or system

The pieces suggest “throwing in,” behind a Greek word for a peg or stopper thrust into something. The medical meaning applies that stopper image to material blocking a blood vessel.

Full entry

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