Patho-, -Pathy “disease, medical” Words: "pathognomonic" to "psychopath",
Part 5 of 6
Medical words that include: patho-, -path-, -pathia,
-pathic, -pathology, -pathetic, -pathize, -pathy
(Greek: feeling, sensation, perception, suffering, [in medicine, these elements usually mean “one who suffers from a disease of, or one who treats a disease” and they are listed separately here from the “feeling” words]).
If you would like to take self-scoring quizzes over many of the words in this subject area, then go to
Patho- Quizzes so you can see how much you know about the following (and other)
“patho-” words.
pathognomonic, pathognomy:
1. The capacity for recognizing feelings and emotions.
2. The science of the signs and symptoms of diseases; typical indications of a particular disease.
3. Specifically distinctive or characteristic of a disease or pathologic condition; a sign or symptom on which a diagnosis can be made.
pathognomy, pathognomic, pathognomonic:
1. The capacity for recognizing feelings, emotions, and human passions.
2. The science of the signs and symptoms of diseases; typical indications of a particular disease.
pathography:
A history or description of disease.
pathology, pathologic, pathological, pathologist:
1. The study of the nature of diseases with regard to structural and functional changes.
2. The branch of medical science that studies the origin, nature, and course of diseases.
3. Pathology was originally the study of “suffering”.
Pathological liar
1. A person who can’t even tell the truth in a diary.
2. A neurotic who believes that a
little lying is a dangerous thing.
—Evan Esar
patholopolis:
A diseased or morally degenerate city.
pathomania, pathomaniac:
Madness, insanity; moral insanity.
pathomeiosis:
The tendency to belittle the importance of one’s disease.
pathometer:
An apparatus for recording the incidence of disease in a specified locality.
pathometry:
Now considered obsolete: Sir Ronald Ross’ term for the quantitative study of parasitic invasion and infection in individuals or groups of individuals.
pathomimesis:
The willful, deliberate, and fraudulent feigning or exaggeration of the symptoms of illness or injury, done for the purpose of consciously achieving some desired objective. Also pathomimicry.
pathomimicry:
The feigning (faking) of a disease or disorder either deliberately or unconsciously; malingering.
pathomorphism:
Abnormal morphology (the form and structure of a particular organism, organ, or part).
pathoneurosis:
1. In psychoanalysis, a neurosis centered around a morbid preoccupation with a diseased organ.
2. Hysterical symptoms due to a chronic disease process.
pathonomia, pathonomy:
The sum of knowledge regarding the laws of disease.
pathophilia:
1. Adapting oneself to a disease.
2. Adjustment of habits to conditions made mandatory by some chronic disease.
3. An excessive, abnormal desire to be sick. Also nosophilia.
pathophobia:
Dread, or excessive fear, of getting any kind of a disease.
pathophoresis:
The transmission of a disease by insects, rodents, etc.
pathophoria, pathophorous, pathophoric:
Conveying or causing a disease.
pathophysiology, pathophysiologic, pathophysiologically:
The physiological processes associated with disease, injury, or disordered function; the study of such processes.
pathoplastic, pathoplastically:
Determining the form of a disease.
pathopleiosis:
A tendency to magnify the importance of one's disease.
pathopoiesis:
The causation of disease; the tendency of an individual to become ill.
pathopsychology:
The psychology of mental diseases.
pathopsychosis:
A psychosis involving bodily functions; such as those arising from organic diseases, including brain tumors, encephalitis, etc.
pathosis:
Any kind of diseased condition.
pathotropism:
The tendency of drugs to pass into diseased areas.
pedopathy:
Any disease of the feet.
pelopathy, pelopathic:
1. The therapeutic use of earth or mud to cure a disease.
2. The application of peloids, such as mud, peat moss, or clay, to all or part of the body. Also known as pelotherapy).
pharyngopathy:
Any disease of the pharynx.
phonopathy:
Any disease of the vocal organs affecting speech.
photopathy:
A diseased effect produced by light.
photoretinopathy:
1. A burn in the retina of the eye from excessive exposure to sunlight.
2. A central retina burn from excessive exposure to sunlight or other intense light (e.g. the flash of an electrical short).
phrenopathy:
Disease of the mind.
phrictopathic:
Causing a shudder; a term applied to a peculiar sensation caused by irritating a hysterical anesthetic area during recovery.
phytopathogen:
Producing disease in plants.
phytopathology:
The study of plant diseases and their control.
phytopathy:
Any plant disease.
pinealopathy:
Disease of the pineal gland (a glandlike structure in the brain, shaped like a pine cone).
pneumonopathy:
Disease of the lung.
polioencephalopathy:
Any disease of the gray matter of the brain.
poliomyelopathy:
Any disease primarily affecting the gray matter of the spinal cord.
polyendocrinopathy:
A disease usually caused by insufficiency of multiple endocrine glands.
polyneuropathy:
A disease process involving a number of peripheral (away from the center) nerves (literal sense), noted in beriberi and chronic alcoholism, as a result of thiamin deficiency.
polypathia:
The occurrence, or presence, of several diseases at the same time.
polyradiculopathy:
1. A diffuse root involvement, seen with, among other disorders, diabetic neuropathy.
2. Simultaneous inflammation of a large number of the spinal nerves marked by paralysis, pain, and the wasting away of muscles.
psychopath, psychopathic, psychopathy, psychopathology:
1. A person affected with antisocial (psychopathic) personality disorder; a mental disease.
2. The pathology of mental disorders; the branch of medicine that deals with the causes and nature of mental disease.
Quizzes
There are seven sections of
patho- words and four self-scoring quizzes are available so you can see how many of these words you know:
Patho- (Feeling) Quiz #1.
Patho- (Disease) Quiz#1
Patho- (Disease) Quiz #2.
Patho- (Disease) Quiz #3.