-pathy Also -path, -pathic, and -pathist.
Disease or disorder; treatment of disease.
[Greek patheia, suffering, feeling.]
Several common terms in -pathy have been imported entire from Greek and relate to feelings: antipathy, apathy, empathy, sympathy. Apart from these, the ending frequently indicates a disease or disorder (cardiopathy, psychopathy) or a method of treating a disorder (homeopathy, osteopathy). For more details and examples, see the table below.
Terms that refer to systems of treatment can have agent nouns in -path for a practitioner (naturopath, osteopath); less commonly, terms in -pathy for disorders have nouns in -path for a sufferer from the condition (psychopath, sociopath, though the former in common usage refers to a sufferer from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviour). Rarely, terms for therapists are formed in -pathist (homeopathist, hydropathist).
Adjectives are formed in -pathic: apathetic, hydropathic, myopathic, sympathetic.
Examples of words in -pathy
All word sources are from Greek unless otherwise stated.
| adenopathy | enlargement or disease of any gland | adēn, gland |
| allopathy | the treatment of disease by conventional means, that is, with drugs having effects opposite to the symptoms | allos, other |
| arthropathy | disease of the joints | arthron, joint |
| cardiopathy | a disease or disorder of the heart | kardia, heart |
| enteropathy | a disease of the intestine, especially the small intestine | enteron, intestine |
| homeopathy | a system of complementary medicine in which disease is treated by minute doses of natural substances that in a healthy person would produce symptoms of disease | homoios, like |
| hydropathy | the treatment of illness through the use of water | hudōr, water |
| myelopathy | disease of the spinal cord | muelos, marrow |
| myopathy | a disease of muscle tissue | mus, mu-, mouse or muscle |
| osteopathy | a complementary medicine that treats medical disorders through the manipulation and massage of the skeleton and musculature | osteon, bone |
| psychopathy | mental illness or disorder | psukhē, breath, soul, mind |
| retinopathy | disease of the retina which results in impairment or loss of vision | Latin rete, net |
| sociopathy | a personality disorder involving extreme antisocial attitudes and behaviour | English social |
| telepathy | the supposed communication of thoughts or ideas by means other than the known senses | tēle-, far off |
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