Serpiginous
Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data
At the time the article was created Daniel J Bell had no recorded disclosures.
View Daniel J Bell's current disclosuresAt the time the article was last revised John Reid Mathieson had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.
View John Reid Mathieson's current disclosures- Serpentine
Serpiginous means creeping from one place to another. In medicine, it was originally, and still is commonly, applied to skin lesions that spread with an undulating border. However, radiologists often erroneously use the term in a manner synonymous with serpentine to mean tortuous, especially when describing blood vessels 2-4.
History and etymology
It derives from the Latin word serpīgo, which, like the Greek derivative herpes (ἕρπης), means "a creeping" 5,6. In now archaic English usage, serpigo refers to creeping skin diseases such as ringworm. Both serpigo and the English word serpent are derived from the Latin serpĕre, meaning "to creep" 1,5.
References
- 1. Ian Brookes. The Chambers Dictionary. (2018) ISBN: 9780550101853
- 2. Shamy MC, Yogendrakumar V, Iancu D, Bourque PR. Serpiginous cranial arterial calcification in uremia. (2017) Neurology. 89 (14): 1530-1531. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000004546 - Pubmed
- 3. Di Chiro G. Serpentine (not serpiginous) vessels in spinal arteriovenous malformations. (1988) Radiology. 166 (1 Pt 1): 286. doi:10.1148/radiology.166.1.3336699 - Pubmed
- 4. Di Chiro G. "Serpentine" vessel, not "serpiginous". (1987) Journal of neurosurgery. 67 (3): 474. Pubmed
- 5. "serpigo, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, September 2019. Web. 21 October 2019.
- 6. "herpes, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, September 2019. Web. 21 October 2019.
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