Neuropharmacologies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A branch of study that focuses on the effects of drugs on the nervous system and behavior
2. The scientific field involved in researching how pharmacological agents impact neural mechanisms and psychiatric conditions
3. An area concerned with investigating the interactions between pharmacology and neurological processes in the brain

Etymology: Neuropharmacology is a modern compound, and the word "neuropharmacologies" is simply its plural. Its two halves come from ancient Greek, but they were never joined in antiquity. "Neuron" (neûron) meant sinew, tendon or cord, and was used for the fibres of the body long before anyone understood nerves as a system. "Pharmakon" meant a drug, but also a poison or a charm, a word that carried all three senses at once. The suffix "-logia", from "lógos" meaning word, account or study, was the common tool for naming fields of knowledge. The compound was assembled in English from these pieces, with "neuro-" and "pharmaco-" attached to "-logy" (the form that came through Latin "-logia" and French "-logie"). Pharmacology came first, as a study of drugs and their effects, and "neuro-" was added to narrow that study to the nervous system. The word is therefore a deliberate modern coinage, built from classical building blocks rather than inherited from the Greeks.