homeopathic

Etymology

It is formed from English homeopathy + -ic,^[2][3] probably after German homöopathisch (1824),^[3][2] which Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Webster's Third and the Shorter Oxford give as its direct source.^[4][5][6] The OED also compares French homéopathique, recorded from 1827.^[2] Dictionary.com analyses the word as homeo- and -pathic.^[7] Homeopathy, recorded in English from 1826, is from German Homöopathie, a word first used by the physician Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of the system,^[3][2][4] formed from Ancient Greek ὅμοιος (hómoios, “like, similar”) and -πάθεια (-pátheia), from πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).^[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to homeopathy: Etymonline dates the word to 1827, in the phrase homœopathic medicine.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from the Edinburgh Review of 1830,^[2] the year Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives,^[4] while Dictionary.com dates the word to 1815–25.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English with the medical system itself, a few years after its German model.^[3][2] Because the doses given in homeopathy are tiny, the adjective was soon used figuratively, often humorously, for anything very small or minute: the OED's first example is from Dickens's Oliver Twist (1838).^[2][6] Merriam-Webster extends this to anything diluted or insipid, as in William Allen White's "a homeopathic abolitionist".^[4][8] As a noun, a homeopathic medicine, it is recorded from 1854, in a letter of Washington Irving.^[2]

Timeline

• 1827 – relating to homeopathy, in homœopathic medicine.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from 1830.^[2][4]
• 1838 – figurative, very small, like a homeopathic dose (often humorous).^[2]
• 1854 – noun, a homeopathic medicine.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to homeopathy, or practising or advocating it: a homeopathic remedy for hay fever.^[4][2][1]
2. Very small or diluted, like the doses used in homeopathy; weak or insipid (often humorous).^[2][6][4][8]

Noun

1. A homeopathic medicine.^[2][1]

Word family

• homeopathically

Related words

• homeopathy
• allopathy
• pathos
• sympathy

Usage notes

The British spelling is homoeopathic, under which the OED and the Shorter Oxford enter the word.^[2][6][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster