Homeopathies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A range of alternative medical treatments based on the principle of treating ailments with highly diluted substances that cause similar symptoms in healthy individuals
2. Various therapeutic practices within alternative medicine that utilize dilute preparations to stimulate the body's healing response by mimicking the illness
3. Multiple methods in holistic health care focused on the belief that substances which create symptoms can be used in minute doses to promote healing of similar symptoms in patients

Etymology: "Homeopathies" is the plural of "homeopathy," a noun formed in German and borrowed into English. The base word combines "homeo-," from Greek "homoios," meaning "like" or "similar," with "-pathy," from Greek "pathos," meaning "suffering" or "feeling," in the sense of a disease or ailment. The core idea behind the system is that a substance causing certain symptoms in a healthy person can cure similar symptoms in a sick one, the principle captured in the older Latin phrase "similia similibus curantur," or "like cures like." The German word "Homöopathie" is the direct source, and English adopted the term from it, so the spelling and structure still reflect that German origin. Because the word is built entirely from familiar Greek parts, its meaning is fairly transparent once you know those elements, even though the practice it names is debated.