trauma (n.)

1690s, "physical wound," medical Latin, from Greek trauma "a wound, a hurt; a defeat," from PIE *trau-, extended form of root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn," with derivatives referring to twisting, piercing, etc. Sense of "psychic wound, unpleasant experience which causes abnormal stress" is from 1894.

Entries linking to trauma

*tere- (1)

*terə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rub, turn," with derivatives referring to twisting, also to boring, drilling, piercing; and to the rubbing of cereal grain to remove the husks, and thus to threshing.

It forms all or part of: atresia; attorn; attorney; attrition; contour; contrite; detour; detriment; diatribe; drill (v.) "bore a hole;" lithotripsy; return; septentrion; thrash; thread; thresh; throw; threshold; trauma; trepan; tribadism; tribology; tribulation; trite; triticale; triturate; trout; trypsin; tryptophan; turn.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit turah "wounded, hurt;" Greek teirein "to rub, rub away;" Latin terere "to rub, thresh, grind, wear away," tornus "turning lathe;" Old Church Slavonic tiro "to rub;" Lithuanian trinu, trinti "to rub," Old Irish tarathar "borer," Welsh taraw "to strike."

traumatic (adj.)

1650s, from French traumatique and directly from Late Latin traumaticus, from Greek traumatikos "pertaining to a wound," from trauma (genitive traumatos; see trauma). Psychological sense is from 1889. Related: Traumatically.

traumatize (v.)

1893, in reference to physical wounds; 1949 in the psychological sense, from Greek traumat-, stem of trauma (see trauma).

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updated on May 24, 2017

Definitions of trauma from WordNet

trauma (n.)

any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.;

Synonyms: injury / hurt / harm

trauma (n.)

an emotional wound or shock often having long-lasting effects;

Synonyms: psychic trauma

From wordnet.princeton.edu, not affiliated with etymonline.

Dictionary entries near trauma

Trappist

traps

trash

trashy

trattoria

trauma

traumatic

traumatise

traumatize

travail

trave