Disorders

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Health conditions marked by dysfunction in physical or mental processes
2. Conditions that disrupt normal physical or mental functions, causing impaired health or behavior
3. States characterized by irregularities in bodily or mental processes that affect well-being or daily living

Etymology: "Disorders" is simply the plural of "disorder," so the story belongs to the singular. The noun came into English from Middle French "desordre," which is the modern French "désordre," passed down from Old French. Its parts are the prefix "des-" (a privative or reversing element, roughly "un-" or "not") and "ordre," meaning order, which descends from Latin "ōrdō," a row or rank. Read literally, a disorder is the state of something no longer kept in its proper row. The English word therefore carries the same picture of things out of their places. Once it had that sense of disarray, it was natural to extend it to the body and mind, where a process running out of its usual arrangement could be called a disorder. The plural form "disorders" simply counts separate conditions of that kind.

Synonyms: conditions, diseases, maladies, ailments, syndromes

Antonyms: health, order, stability