geriatrics

Meaning

Noun

• The branch of medicine that focuses on health promotion and the prevention and treatment of disease and disability in later life. The term itself can be distinguished from gerontology, which is the study of the aging process itself.
• Plural of geriatric

Origin

• From Ancient Greek γῆρας (see γέρων) + ἰατρός; coined in English in 1909 by Ignatz L. Nascher in the New York Medical Journal on the model of pediatrics; correct formation would be gerontiatrics.