petechia

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin petechia, from Italian petecchie (“skin eruptions”, plural), probably from a popular Latin diminutive of petigo (“scab, eruption”) (from impetīgo).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɪˈtiːkɪə/

Noun

petechia (plural petechiae)

  1. (medicine) A small spot, especially on an organ, caused by bleeding underneath the skin.
    • 1973, Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise:
      It is scurvy. All my authorities agree – weakness, diffused muscular pain, petechia, tender gums, ill breath – and M’Alister has no doubt of it.
    • 2005, Donald Hall, The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 97:
      The marks on Jane's skin were petechiae, little hemorrhages that indicate lack of platelets in the blood. She needed two units of platelets transfused into her bloodstream.

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