Pathologise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To regard or interpret a behavior, condition, or phenomenon as a sign of illness or pathology
2. To classify or analyze something as if it were a medical disorder or abnormality
3. To treat or understand an issue in terms of disease or malfunction rather than as a normal variation

Etymology: "Pathologise" is a British spelling of "pathologize," and it is a plain, late coinage rather than an ancient word. It is built from "pathology" with the verbal suffix "-ize," which entered English through Late Latin "-izare" and Greek "-izein," the suffix used to form verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat as." The "pathology" half comes from ancient Greek "pathos," meaning suffering or experience, joined to "logos," meaning word, study or account, so the core sense is "the study of suffering or disease." The verb's meaning follows directly from that suffix. "Pathology" in English long referred to the study of disease, and the verb turned the medical lens into an action: to pathologise something is to regard it as a disease or disorder. The sense is most often applied to ordinary human traits or behaviours that are not themselves illnesses, so that a condition is framed as a medical problem.

Synonyms: disease, diagnose