Paterfamilias
The male head of the family; the father figure. Paterfamilias is the Latin for father of the household. It is compounded from pater (father) + familias, which comes from familia (household), from famulus (servant, slave). The feminine counterpart is the materfamilias.
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- Paternal
1. Pertaining to the father as, for example, a paternal age effect. 2. Related through the father as, for example, the paternal grandparents. 3. Inherited from the father as, for example, the paternal X chromosome.
- Patent urachus
A surgery to repair a bladder defect. In an open (patent) urachus, there is an opening between the bladder and the umbilicus. The opening usually closes before birth. An open urachus typically occurs in infants. Failure for the lumen of the urachus to be filled in leaves a patent (open) urachus. The telltale sign is […]
- Perforation, nasal septum
A hole in the nasal septum, the wall inside the nose that runs down the middle dividing it into two sides. The hole provides a direct communication between the two normally-separate sides of the nose. Perforation of the nasal septum can be due to trauma (such as a blow to the nose, picking the nose, […]
- Perfusion
A chemotherapy technique that may be used when melanoma occurs on an arm or leg. The flow of blood to and from the limb is stopped for a while with a tourniquet, and anticancer drugs are put directly into the blood of the limb. This allows the patient to receive a high dose of drugs […]
- Peri-
Prefix meaning around or about, as in pericardial (around the heart) and periaortic lymph nodes (lymph nodes around the aorta).