Inflammation of an intervertebral disc in the spine, usually caused by infection or injury.
From discus (Latin for disc) + -itis (suffix indicating inflammation). Discus comes from Greek diskos. The -itis suffix universally indicates inflammatory conditions in medical terminology, derived from Greek -itis.
Medical language is wonderfully systematic—once you know '-itis' means inflammation and 'disc' is 'discus,' you can decode 'discitis' even if you've never encountered it before, which is why medical terms feel like solving puzzles.
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