different between pathology vs morbid

English

Etymology

From French pathologie, from Ancient Greek ????? (páthos, “disease”) and -????? (-logía, “study of”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p????l?d?i/
• Rhymes: -?l?d?i

Noun

pathology (usually uncountable, plural pathologies)

1. (medicine) The branch of medicine concerned with the study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences.
2. (clinical medicine) The medical specialty that provides microscopy and other laboratory services (e.g., cytology, histology) to clinicians.

3. Pathosis: any deviation from a healthy or normal structure or function; abnormality; illness or malformation.

   Synonyms: abnormality, disease, illness, pathosis

Usage notes

Some house style guides for medical publications avoid the "illness" sense of pathology (“disease, state of ill health”) and replace it with pathosis. The rationale is that the -ology form should be reserved for the "study of disease" sense and for the medical specialty that provides microscopy and other laboratory services (e.g., cytology, histology) to clinicians. This rationale drives similar usage preferences about etiology ("cause" sense versus "study of causes" sense), methodology ("methods" sense versus "study of methods" sense), and other -ology words.

Not all such natural usage can be purged gracefully, but the goal is to reserve the -ology form to its "study" sense when practical. Not all publications bother with this prescription, because most physicians don't do so in their own speech (and the context makes clear the sense intended).

Another limitation is that pathology (“illness”) has an adjectival form (pathologic), but the corresponding adjectival form of pathosis (pathotic) is idiomatically missing from English (defective declension), so pathologic is obligate for both senses ("diseased" and "related to the study of disease"); this likely helps keep the "illness" sense of pathology in natural use (as the readily retrieved noun counterpart to pathologic in the "diseased" sense).

Derived terms

Related terms

• pathologic
• pathological
• pathobiology
• pathophysiology

Translations

Further reading

• pathology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• logopathy

English

Etymology

From Latin morbidus (“diseased”), from morbus (“sickness”), itself from the root of morior (“die”) or directly from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub, pound, wear away”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m??.b?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m??.b?d/

Adjective

morbid (comparative more morbid, superlative most morbid)

1. (originally) Of, or relating to disease. [from 1650s]
2. (by extension) Taking an interest in unhealthy or unwholesome subjects such as death, decay, disease. [from 1770s]
3. Suggesting the horror of death; macabre or ghoulish
4. Grisly or gruesome.

Synonyms

• (of or relating to disease): pathological
• (unhealthy or unwholesome): sick, twisted, unhealthy, unwholesome, warped
• (suggesting the horror of death): black, ghoulish, grim, macabre
• (grisly, gruesome): bloody, disgusting, gory, grisly, gruesome, sickening

Derived terms

• morbidity
• morbidly
• morbidness

Related terms

• morbidezza
• morbilous

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “morbid”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• bromid

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m???bi?t/

Adjective

morbid (comparative morbider, superlative am morbidsten)

1. morbid

Declension

Derived terms

• komorbid
• Morbidität