Editing Inflammation (section)

== Meaning ==
The earliest known reference for the term inflammation is around the early 15th century. The word root comes from [[Old French]] ''inflammation'' around the 14th century, which then comes from [[Latin]] ''inflammatio'' or ''inflammationem''. Literally, the term relates to the word "flame", as the property of being "set on fire" or "to burn".<ref name="k027">{{Cite web |date=2017-09-28 |title=inflammation |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/inflammation |access-date=2024-08-11 |website=Etymology of inflammation by etymonline}}</ref>

The term ''inflammation'' is not a synonym for ''infection''. ''Infection'' describes the interaction between the action of microbial invasion and the reaction of the body's inflammatory response—the two components are considered together in discussion of infection, and the word is used to imply a microbial invasive cause for the observed inflammatory reaction. ''Inflammation'', on the other hand, describes just the body's immunovascular response, regardless of cause. But, because the two are often [[correlation|correlated]], words ending in the suffix ''[[wikt:-itis|-itis]]'' (which means inflammation) are sometimes informally described as referring to infection: for example, the word ''[[urethritis]]'' strictly means only "urethral inflammation", but clinical [[health care provider]]s usually discuss urethritis as a urethral infection because urethral microbial invasion is the most common cause of urethritis. However, the inflammation–infection distinction is crucial in situations in [[pathology]] and [[medical diagnosis]] that involve inflammation that is not driven by microbial invasion, such as cases of [[atherosclerosis]], [[Trauma (medicine)|trauma]], [[ischemia]], and [[autoimmune diseases]] (including [[type III hypersensitivity]]).