Inflammation of the gallbladder, typically caused by bile buildup, infection, or gallstones.
From Greek 'chole' (bile) + 'kystis' (bladder) + '-itis' (inflammation). The '-itis' suffix became the standard way to indicate inflammation of any body part in medical terminology.
While 'cholecystitis' (with extra letters) is the more common modern form, 'cholecystis' shows how medical terminology evolved—older texts use the shorter form, demonstrating how language standardizes over time.
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