Allopathy

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈlɒpəθi/

Definitions

1. A practice in medicine that focuses on treating illnesses through interventions that induce effects contrary to the presenting symptoms
2. A method of treatment that aims to relieve health conditions by utilizing agents that create opposite effects to those observed in the patient
3. A therapeutic approach in healthcare that seeks to alleviate symptoms by using substances or procedures that produce effects contrary to those experienced by the patient

Etymology: Samuel Hahnemann, the German physician who founded homeopathy in the late 1700s, coined "Allopathie" as an insult. His rival doctors practised what he saw as conventional medicine, and he meant the label to show that their treatments had no real connection to the disorder they were supposed to cure. Homeopathy's followers were reacting against that kind of therapy, and the term was a weapon in their dispute, not a neutral description of anyone's methods. The word is built from Greek "allos," meaning "other" or "different," and "pathos," meaning "suffering" or "disease," with the "-pathy" ending that also appears in words like "homeopathy" and "osteopathy." Hahnemann's point was that orthodox treatment worked by inducing effects unlike the symptoms, while his own principle of "like cures like" matched remedies to symptoms they resembled. The term passed into English as a pejorative from German, and it kept that charge for a long time. Its meaning is now largely the plain one: a medical approach that treats illness by producing effects opposed to the symptoms it presents.