GC: n

S: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153704.php (last access: 13 June 2015); http://www.medicinenet.com/pulmonary_embolism/article.htm (last access: 13 June 2015).

N: 1. late 14c., “intercalation, insertion of days into a calendar,” from Old French embolisme “intercalation,” from Late Latin embolismus “insertion of days in a calendar to correct errors,” from Late Greek embolismos “intercalation,” from embolos “insertion, a plug, wedge” (see embolus). Medical sense of “obstruction of a blood vessel” is first recorded in English 1855. Related: embolismic.
2. Embolism, obstruction of the flow of blood by an embolus, a particle or aggregate of substance that is abnormally present in the bloodstream. The substance may be a blood clot that has broken loose from its point of formation (while it is still adherent to the vessel at the point where it was formed, the clot is called a thrombus); it may be a drop of soluble fat from a crushing injury of fatty tissue; it may be a clump of tumour cells, bacteria, or detached tissue cells; it may be a foreign body such as a bullet.
3. Cultural Interrelation: January 6, 1919: Theodore Roosevelt Dies Suddenly at Oyster Bay Home. Embolism caused death of former president of The United States of America (from 1901 to 1909).

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=embolism (last access: 13 June 2015). 2. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/science/embolism (last access: 13 June 2015). 3. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0106.html (last access: 18 June 2016).

SYN:
S:

CR: artery, thrombosis, vein.