iniectio

Iniectio is a Latin noun that denotes the act of introducing a substance into a living body by means of a needle or other instrument. It is typically understood as the administration of a medicament through puncture, incision, or insertion of a delivery device, and it encompasses various routes such as intramuscular, subcutaneous, or intravenous injection. The term is traditionally linked to the verb injicere, formed from in- meaning into and jicere meaning to throw or cast.

Historically, iniectio appears in late antique, medieval, and early modern Latin pharmacological and clinical writings as a straightforward description of introducing substances into the body. It functions as a general, non-technical label for the practice, rather than a designation of a specific method or route. In many later Latin texts, the spelling injectio becomes more common, and in some contexts iniectio appears as a variant spelling of the same concept.

Modern usage in medical Latin tends to favor the form injectio, with iniectio present mainly as a historical or variant spelling. The broader concept remains the same: the delivery of a drug or fluid into an organism from outside. When precise routes are required, Latin texts typically specify intramuscular, intravenous, subcutaneous, or other descriptors in addition to the term for the act of injection. In English-language scholarship, iniectio is usually glossed as “injection” and translated accordingly in historical pharmacology and clinical literature.