Pathophysiology

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The branch of medical science that investigates the changes in bodily functions due to disease
2. It involves understanding the physiological alterations that occur as a result of illness
3. The scientific investigation of how diseases alter normal biological processes within the body

Etymology: The word is a compound built from two Greek-derived parts, and its first half reaches back to a verb meaning "to suffer" or "to experience." The Greek "pathos" came from "pascho," which meant "to suffer," and it gave English the prefix "patho-," used for disease. The second half descends from "physiology," which joins "physis," meaning "nature" or "growth," with "logos," meaning "study" or "account." Ancient Greek "physiologia" meant the study of the natural world, and it passed into Latin and then French before English adopted "physiology." Put together, "pathophysiology" is simply the study of how disease alters normal bodily function. Its prefix describes the suffering, and its suffix describes the systematic investigation of the body's workings, so the word reads almost as a plain statement of what the field does.