hypochondrium

Once upon a time, doctors used this word for the upper part of the abdomen just below the ribs, on either side of the middle. In old medical thinking, this area was also believed to be the source of melancholy, or deep sadness. That old belief is why the word later became connected to fear and worry about illness.

Today, the word itself is mainly anatomical. A doctor may use it when talking about the right or left upper part of the abdomen, where organs such as the liver and spleen are found. In everyday English, though, people are much more likely to meet related words like "hypochondria" or "hypochondriac" than this exact term.

The word "hypochondrium" comes from Greek parts meaning "under" and "cartilage," and it originally named the area under the rib cartilages. In anatomy, it refers to the upper side regions of the abdomen: the right hypochondrium and the left hypochondrium. These are the areas above the rest of the belly and beside the epigastrium, the middle upper region.

In older medicine, this part of the body was thought to be linked to melancholy and other mental troubles. Because of that belief, words from the same family gradually became associated with imagined illness or excessive concern about health. That history gave English words such as "hypochondria" and "hypochondriac."

Modern usage, however, keeps an important distinction. "Hypochondrium" itself is still mainly an anatomical term, used in medicine or technical description of the body. A clinician might mention pain in the right hypochondrium when checking the liver or gallbladder, or pain in the left hypochondrium when thinking about the spleen. In ordinary conversation, the word is rare, while the related terms about health anxiety are far more common.

So the story of this word moves from the body to the mind, but the word itself still names a place in the body. It is best understood first as an anatomical region and only second as the historical source of a group of words about anxious attention to illness.