Affixes

The ending is most common in medical terms, such as bacteriostasis, the prevention of the growth of bacteria; haemostasis (US hemostasis) (Greek haima, blood), the stopping of a flow of blood; cholestasis (Greek kholē, bile), failure of normal amounts of bile to reach the intestines, leading to jaundice; fungistasis, inhibition of the growth of fungi; epistasis (literally ‘stoppage’, from Greek ephistanai, to stop), the interaction of genes that are not alleles, in particular the suppression of the effect of one such gene by another. However, metastasis (Greek methistanai, to change) is the development of secondary malignant growths at a distance from a primary site of cancer. An example from outside medicine is iconostasis, a screen bearing icons, separating the sanctuary of many Eastern churches from the nave.