petechia

English

A rash featuring petechiae

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin petechia, from Italian petecchie (“skin eruptions”, plural), probably from a popular Latin diminutive of petigo (“scab, eruption”) (from impetīgo).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɪˈtiːkɪə/

Noun

petechia (plural petechiae)

1. (medicine) A small spot, especially on an organ, caused by bleeding underneath the skin.
   • 1973, Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise:

     It is scurvy. All my authorities agree – weakness, diffused muscular pain, petechia, tender gums, ill breath – and M’Alister has no doubt of it.

   • 2005, Donald Hall, The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 97:

     The marks on Jane's skin were petechiae, little hemorrhages that indicate lack of platelets in the blood. She needed two units of platelets transfused into her bloodstream.

Derived terms

• petechial

Translations

a small spot, especially on an organ, caused by bleeding underneath the skin

• Finnish: petekkia
• French: pétéchie (fr) f
• Galician: petequia (gl) f
• German: Petechien pl
• Portuguese: petéquia m
• Russian: петехия (ru) f (petexija), точечное кровоизлияние n
• Spanish: petequia f
• Ukrainian: пете́хія f (petéxija)

Anagrams

• epitheca