Talk:Polycythemia

Xenopolycythemia. This word is from ancient Greek. xeno means "foreign," "poly" means "many"and "cythemia" means "blood cell disease". However, if you punctuate the Greek differently, so: xeno(foreign) polis (city) athymia (depression) it becomes clear that the Star Trek scriptwriters, as so often, loved to play with Greek puns. "Xenopolisathymia" means "foreign city depression," and thus refers to Dr. McCoy's depression and loneliness, which Natira intends to fix. It is too great a coincidence otherwise, since the episode is about a foreign city. So what we have here is an elaborate pun: a blood disease, and "foreign city depression."