petechia

Borrowed from New Latin, from Italian petecchie (“skin eruptions”), probably from a popular Latin diminutive of petigo (“scab, eruption”) (from impetīgo).

• IPA^(key): /pɪˈtiːkɪə/

petechia (plural petechiae)

1. (medicine) A small spot, especially on an organ, caused by bleeding underneath the skin.
   • 1973, Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise:

     It is scurvy. All my authorities agree – weakness, diffused muscular pain, petechia, tender gums, ill breath – and M’Alister has no doubt of it.

   • 2005, Donald Hall, The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 97:

     The marks on Jane's skin were petechiae, little hemorrhages that indicate lack of platelets in the blood. She needed two units of platelets transfused into her bloodstream.

• petechial

• epitheca