Chemotherapy
Etymology
Coined by the German physician Paul Ehrlich in the early twentieth century from “chemo-” (chemical) and “therapy,” originally meaning the use of chemicals to attack disease-causing organisms — his dream of a “magic bullet” that would strike the pathogen and spare the patient. The word later attached mainly to cancer treatment, where the aim is the same but the bullet is far less precise.
noun · /kee-moh-THER-uh-pee/
Treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-dividing cells, most famously as a cancer treatment.
What it names
The harsh trade at the center of much cancer care — poisoning the body’s fastest-growing cells and accepting damage to healthy ones as the price of reaching the tumor.
Example
She lost her hair during chemotherapy because the drugs hit the fast-growing cells in her follicles along with the cancer.
Related idea
Chemotherapy attacks cells with chemicals throughout the body; radiation therapy instead aims a targeted beam at one site. The generic therapy covers any treatment at all, so naming the method matters when weighing the side effects each one carries.