Pathology

Pathology

Noun · /pəˈθɒl.ə.dʒi/

Definition

(1) (Medicine) the scientific study of disease — its causes, development, mechanisms, and effects on body tissues and organs; the branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis of disease through laboratory examination of body fluids, tissues, and organs. (2) A specific disease or condition; the pathology underlying a disorder. (3) By extension: the study of any serious social, psychological, or systemic dysfunction — the pathology of addiction, the pathologies of modern capitalism.

Origin

From Greek pathos (suffering, disease, experience) + logos (study, reason, word) — from pathologia in Hellenistic Greek, meaning the study of suffering and disease. Pathology therefore meaning the study or science of disease. Appearing in English from the seventeenth century in the medical sense. The figurative extension to social and psychological dysfunction appearing from the nineteenth century as pathology became a prestigious scientific term whose metaphorical power was applied to social analysis.