psychopathology

Etymology

It is formed from English psycho- + pathology,^[2][3][4][5] on the model of German Psycho-Pathologie, now Psychopathologie, which appears in 1845 in the passage that the first English record translates.^[2][3][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged classes it as International Scientific Vocabulary.^[6] The first part is from Ancient Greek ψυχο- (psukho-), the combining form of ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul, mind, spirit”).^[2][3] The second is from New Latin pathologia, formed from Ancient Greek παθο- (patho-) and -λογία (-logía),^[2] with the first element from πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The field of study of disorders of the mind or, in early use, the brain: 1847, in H. E. Lloyd and B. G. Babington's translation of a German work.^[2][6][3] Dictionary.com dates the word 1840–50.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a science,^[2][3] not long after pathology itself began to be used of abnormal mental conditions, from 1842 according to Etymonline.^[3] It then moved from the field to its subject matter: the revised Oxford English Dictionary finds the sense of a condition affecting the mind, or such conditions collectively, from 1907,^[2] while Etymonline dates "a mentally deranged state or condition" to 1947 and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 20th century.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1847 – the study of disorders of the mind or brain.^[2][6][3]
• 1907 – a condition affecting the mind; such conditions collectively.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1947.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The study of the causes, development and signs of mental and behavioural disorders.^[7][6][8]
2. Disordered mental or behavioural functioning, or the signs of it: The clinic screened new patients for depression and related psychopathology.^[7][6][2]

Word family

• psychopathological
• psychopathologist
• psychopathologically

Related words

• psychopath
• psychology
• psyche
• pathology

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins