A condition where the body loses the ability to maintain cells or tissues, causing them to waste away; often used in neurology to describe degenerative diseases.
From Greek 'a-' (not) + 'bios' (life) + 'trophe' (nourishment). The term literally means 'loss of nourishment for life' and was coined in the 1880s to describe certain degenerative diseases.
Abiotrophy describes diseases where your own body essentially 'forgets' how to feed and maintain certain cells—it's like your biology loses the instruction manual, which is exactly what happens in some forms of blindness and deafness!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.