Cephalalgia
/ˌsɛf.əˈlæl.dʒi.ə/noun
A medical term for headache.
Did you know?Cephalalgia comes from Greek kephalē (“head”) + algos (“pain”), and that same algos root survives in words like nostalgia and melancholy, where pain becomes memory and mood.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Greek
Greek
kephalē + algos
“head + pain”
Late Greek
Greek
kephalalgia
“head pain; headache”
Medieval Latin
Latin
cephalalgia
“medical term for headache”
16th Century
English
cephalalgia
“headache, especially in learned medical usage”
Modern English
English
cephalalgia
“a headache”
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