History and etymology (article structure)

History and etymology is one of the main subheadings in a standard article. It used to be called Etymology​, but since we were also using this section to address historical aspects of topics, we have renamed it to (the more appropriate) "History and etymology".

Location

The "History and etymology" subheading is located after "Treatment and prognosis" and before "Differential diagnosis".

Structure

This section contains information about:

• etymology and information about why something is named what it's named
• information about an eponym and the person after whom something is named; this person's name should be capitalised and in bold, one of a very few cases when the use of bold text is encouraged on Radiopaedia.org (one of the others being the article's topic in the introduction)
• general historical information, e.g. who described something first or other historical points

True etymological discussion usually occurs when the origin of the word is from Ancient Greek or Latin roots. Where something is named after somebody i.e. an eponym, discussion will include who they are, when they lived and most likely include what they did as a profession. Referencing these details is also important; in many cases referencing the eponym website "whonamedit.com" (or similar online resource) is unhelpful as material on these website is often unreferenced.  

It is helpful to add the tag "eponym" if the discussion is about an eponym.

Examples

Harold Style (1921-1988) ¹ was an Austrian anatomist who was pre-eminent in the discovery of this rare syndrome.

Articles

• scaphoid
• Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease