heartburn (e silent)

[Eng. heart, and burn. A misnomer, for it is not an affection of the heart.] Pathol.: The popular name for Cardialgia (q. v.). The anatomical meanings of the Greek kardia are (1) the heart, and (2) the cardiac extremity of the stomach, the stomach itself. It is used in the word cardialgy in the latter sense, now a forgotten one. To avoid ambiguity, gastralgy has of late been substituted for cardialgy as the name of heartburn.