Good tidings to you, philomaths! And welcome to today’s episode of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. My dear listener, I sincerely hope that you and yours are in good health, so that today’s word may not apply to you, for today’s word is: valetudinarian.

Valetudinarian is a sickly or weak person, especially one who is constantly and morbidly concerned with their health. The word originates in 1703, from ‘valetudinary’, which is in turn from the Latin ‘valetudinarius’ meaning ‘in ill health’. This word is made up of ‘valetudo’, which means ‘state of health’, which is made up of, stay with me, comes from ‘valere’ meaning ‘be strong’ and ‘tudo’, an abstract noun. We did it! We got to the bottom of that word! Ha ha!

To use valetudinarian in a sentence, you might say, ‘Yes, June is concerned that she has the mumps again, but do remember that she is a valetudinarian.’ Some people have referred to the word as being like ‘the valedictorian of hypochondriacs’. Indeed, ‘valetudinarian’ has been recognised as a synonym for ‘hypochondriac’, which is defined as ‘someone who lives with the fear that they have a serious, but undiagnosed medical disorder’. The difference between the two words here is that a valetudinarian is usually sick and weak already, whereas a hypochondriac may not be ill at all. 

Hypochondriac comes from the late Latin ‘hypochondria’, which is from the Greek ‘hypokhondria’ where ‘hypo’ means ‘under’ and ‘khondros’ refers to ‘cartilage’, and in this case, the cartilage refers to that of ‘the false ribs’, It can be traced all the way back to  the Middle English medical term from the fourteenth century ‘ipocondrie’ which means ‘lateral regions of the upper abdomen.’ But please don’t fear, there’s no way any of that applies to you, dear listener.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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