A painful infection and inflammation of the appendix, a small tube attached to the large intestine.
From 'appendix' (Latin for small attachment) plus '-itis' (Greek suffix meaning inflammation). The medical term was formalized in the 1800s as doctors learned to treat this emergency condition.
Appendicitis became one of the first common abdominal surgeries because, unlike other organs, your appendix seems to do almost nothing—so removing it doesn't harm you, making it a safe emergency fix.
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