Word of the Day: Pathology

pa·thol·o·gy

noun 

: the study of diseases and of the changes that they cause

: changes in a person, an animal, or a plant that are caused by disease

plural   pa·thol·o·gies

 

Full Definition of PATHOLOGY

1:  the study of the essential nature of diseases and especially of the structural and functional changes produced by them

2:  something abnormal:

 a :  the structural and functional deviations from the normal that constitute disease or characterize a particular disease

 b :  deviation from propriety or from an assumed normal state of something nonliving or nonmaterial

 c :  deviation giving rise to social ills <connections between these pathologies … and crime — Wendy Kaminer>

Examples of PATHOLOGY

1. the pathology of lung diseases

Origin of PATHOLOGY

New Latin pathologia & Middle French pathologie, from Greek pathologia study of the emotions, from path- + -logia -logy

First Known Use: 1611

 

Other Psychology Terms

fetish, hypochondria, intelligence, mania, narcissism, neurosis, pathological, psychosis, schadenfreude, subliminal

 

pa·thol·o·gy

noun \-jē\    (Medical Dictionary)

plural  pa·thol·o·gies

 

 

Medical Definition of PATHOLOGY

1: the study of the essential nature of diseases and especially of the structural and functional changes produced by them

2: the anatomic and physiological deviations from the normal that constitute disease or characterize a particular disease

3: a treatise on or compilation of abnormalities <a new pathology of the eye>

 

 

pathology

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Medical specialty dealing with causes of disease and structural and functional changes in abnormal conditions. As autopsies, initially prohibited for religious reasons, became more accepted in the late Middle Ages, people learned more about the causes of death. In 1761 Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682–1771) published the first book to locate disease in individual organs. In the mid-19th century the humoral theories of infection were replaced first by cell-based theories (see Rudolf Virchow) and then by the bacteriologic theories of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur. Today pathologists work mostly in the laboratory and consult with a patient’s physician after examining specimens including surgically removed body parts, blood and other fluids, urine, feces, and discharges. Culturing of infectious organisms, staining, fibre-optic endoscopy, and electron microscopy have greatly expanded the information available to the pathologist.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pathology