Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports The word “trauma” comes from the Greek, meaning “wound”; it’s related to tetrainein, meaning “to pierce.” In Biblical Greek the word is τρα\u1fe6μα, related to a word also meaning “to break in pieces, shatter, smite through.”
These etymological origins hint at what separates a traumatic injury from the regular slings and arrows of life. Trauma isn’t just surface-level damage, but a wound that pierces through, that breaks what was once whole into pieces. These surface-level wounds, while excruciatingly painful in the moment, ultimately show themselves to be mere setbacks: after an injury on the field, a period of rehab and a tour through the minor leagues on the…
