anesthesia

• anaesthesia (UK)
• anæsthesia (obsolete)

Sense of “insensibility” attested since 1679, from New Latin anaesthēsia, from Ancient Greek ἀναισθησία (anaisthēsía, “without sensation”), from ἀν- (an-, “not”) and αἴσθησις (aísthēsis, “sensation”).^[1] By surface analysis, an- +‎ -esthesia.

Sense of “state induced by an agent” attested since 1846.^[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌæn.əsˈθiːz.i.ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌæn.əsˈθi.ʒə/, (nonstandard) /ˌæn.əsˈti.ʒə/

anesthesia (countable and uncountable, plural anesthesias)

1. (medicine, American spelling, Canadian spelling) An artificial method of preventing sensation, used to eliminate pain without causing loss of vital functions, by the administration of one or more agents which block pain impulses before transmitted to the brain.

   Hyponyms: general anesthesia, local anesthesia, twilight anesthesia

   Coordinate term: analgesia

   • 2015 August 27, “Intracochlear Bleeding Enhances Cochlear Fibrosis and Ossification: An Animal Study”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     In addition, 0.5 ml of 1% lidocaine HCl was injected subcutaneously in the postauricular area for local anesthesia.

2. (American spelling) The loss or prevention of sensation, as caused by anesthesia (in the above sense), or by a lesion in the nervous system, or by another physical abnormality.

   Antonym: aesthesia

   • 1902, William James, “Lectures 4 & 5”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     In some individuals optimism may become quasi-pathological. The capacity for even a transient sadness or a momentary humility seems cut off from them as by a kind of congenital anæsthesia.

3. (loosely, metonymic, often proscribed) A medication that provides the service of temporarily blocking sensation.

   Synonym: anesthetic

   Coordinate terms: analgesic; analgesia (likewise proscribed in such metonymic usage)

• anesthesia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• anesthesia on the Simple English Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^simple

• Taishanese