azotemia
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌæzəʊˈtiːmɪə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌæzoʊˈtimiə/
- Hyphenation: azo‧te‧mia
Noun
azotemia (countable and uncountable, plural azotemias)
Usage notes
In international scientific vocabulary there exists a small class of words wherein the form prefixed with hyper- is either usually or always synonymous with the unprefixed form, despite the combining form logic whereby it would be expected not to be synonymous. Such word pairs have this trait for a shared reason: although the unprefixed form etymonically (sensu stricto) names a state or condition that is normal (physiologically healthy), idiomatically it is also often used to name the excessive, abnormal version of that state or condition, which is the only version of it that is noteworthy to human attention in most practical contexts. Thus, for example, with azotemia: there is virtually always some amount of urea in the blood, but that amount is usually small, so a word that etymonically means "nitrogen in the blood" predictably came to mean "excessive nitrogen in the blood" in most of its invocations in physician usage, making the usual sense of azotemia synonymous with the only sense of hyperazotemia. In parallel, the word uremia (as a synonym of azotemia) has its analogous counterpart in hyperuremia. Other word pairs in which the unprefixed form has a sense (either a sole sense or an alternative sense) that is synonymous with the form prefixed with hyper- include hidrosis and hyperhidrosis, kyphosis and hyperkyphosis, lordosis and hyperlordosis, lacrimation and hyperlacrimation, and salivation and hypersalivation. For many of these pairs, some speakers seek to maintain a sense differentiation whereby the unprefixed form only refers to the normal (physiologically healthy) degree/version and the form prefixed with hyper- is the only form that refers to the excessive, abnormal degree/version, but the problem with that usage prescription is that many speakers do not follow it and one's readers cannot know that its enforcement is intended unless one states one's definitions explicitly within one's discussion.