Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and problems specific to the aged.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine 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.
  • noun Plural form of geriatric; old people.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the branch of medical science that deals with diseases and problems specific to old people

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek gēras, old age; see gerə- in Indo-European roots + –iatrics.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek γῆρας (gēras, "old age") + ἰατρός (iatros, "physician"); 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.

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Examples

  • Despite a lack of specialized training in geriatrics, many health care professionals regularly treat older patients.

    USATODAY.com - Geriatrics at a glance 2002

  • Not everyone in geriatrics works directly with the patient.

    USATODAY.com - Top 10 skills to get ahead in gerontology 2002

  • There is a pressing shortage of professionals specially trained in geriatrics, especially among physicians.

    USATODAY.com - Career strategy: Open up emotionally 2002

  • Only a handful of medical schools require students to take courses in geriatrics.

    USATODAY.com - Geriatrics at a glance 2002

  • To respond to the Happy Hospitalist's comment, as a FP in Canada you can follow your two year family medicine residency with a third year to improve your skills in a particular patient population such as geriatrics which will help you to manage that complicated 85-yr-old.

    An Immodest Proposal 1 Dinosaur 2008

  • Though some speeches included words like "geriatrics" and "uxoriousness," the Flesch readability test--designed to measure how difficult a text is to understand--placed them at a fifth-grade reading level.

    I'd Like Not To Thank The Academy 2006

  • Mnangagwa gave ZANU-PF MP Lazarus Dokora a warning for referring to the country's judges as "geriatrics".

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2000

  • A part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Coler-Goldwater is committed to serving the New York City and surrounding communities while setting the example as a national leader in long-term and sub-acute care with centers of excellence is areas such as geriatrics, rehabilitation, and ventilator dependence.

    PRWeb - Daily News Feed 2010

  • A part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Coler-Goldwater is committed to serving the New York City and surrounding communities while setting the example as a national leader in long-term and sub-acute care with centers of excellence is areas such as geriatrics, rehabilitation, and ventilator dependence.

    PRWeb - Daily News Feed 2010

  • Another group of consultants in the old "off-site" private practice Category 2 who work in some specialties such as geriatrics, and in the midlands, north-west and west, would be in line for pay increases of €77,308 for switching over to the public only contract.

    IrishHealth.com 2009

  • In medicine, the term “geriatrics” was coined in 1909; by 1914, the first textbook on that specialty was published.

    “Old age” is made up—and this concept is hurting everyone Joseph F. Coughlin 2021

  • This was thanks in part to a new specialisation, geriatrics, a term coined by Austrian-American doctor Ignatz Leo Nascher in 1909.

    Does anyone ever really feel ‘grown up’? I asked some older people to find out Moya Sarner 2022

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