The word [hypochondriac] is formed by the prefix [hypo-], meaning "below", the root term [-chondr-], meaning "cartilage", and the suffix [-iac], meaning "pertaining to". A literal translation would be "pertaining to (the area) below the cartilage"; this does nothing to explain what we understand as a "hypochondriac" patient.

The word [hypochondrium], was first used by Hippocrates of Cos (460 BC - 370 BC) to denote the anterior bilateral areas below the lower costalcartilages of the thorax, what we known today as two of the abdominal regions, the hypochondriac regions.

These two areas contain on the left, the liver and gallbladder, and on the right, the spleen, part of the stomach, and the left flexure of the colon. Because of the visceral sensations referred by some patients in these areas without any apparent problems, these symptoms started to be called "hypochondriac symptoms". It did not take much time to refer to a patient that refers pathological symptoms without being sick as an "hypochondriac". The first one to actually use this term in a publication was Robert Whytt (1714 - 1766), a Scottish physician.