symptom

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sinthoma,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin sinthoma (“symptom of a disease”),^[2][3][5] a corrupt form of Late Latin symptōma,^[6][2][3] from Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “chance, accident, mischance; disease”),^[6][2][7] from the stem of συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “to fall together, befall, happen”),^[6][2][8] formed from σύν (sún, “together”) and πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”).^[6][2][9] Etymonline and Klein trace the Greek verb to a reduplicated form of Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to rush, to fly”),^[2][9] the root of feather.^[10][3] The spelling was re-Latinized from about 1540, perhaps partly under the influence of Middle French symptome;^[2][3][6] the OED compares Italian sintomo and Spanish síntoma.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A change in the body or mind that comes with a disease and shows its presence: 1398, as sinthoma, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[6][3] The re-Latinized form symptom is first recorded in 1541, in Copland's translation of Galen's Terapeutyke.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that a symptom was etymologically just something that happens, an occurrence, and that its use for signs of disease was a secondary development in Greek and Latin.^[8] In English the medical sense came first, and the general sense, a sign or indication that something exists, is first recorded in 1611, in Ben Jonson's verses for Coryate's Crudities;^[6][3][2] the OED notes that it was at first used of something bad.^[6] From 1722 it could also mean the slightest sign or trace of something, usually in negative contexts.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave both "something that happens concurrently with something else" and "a sign; a token".^[11] Merriam-Webster Unabridged now also uses it for the visible reaction of a plant to a disease.^[10]

Timeline

• 1398 – sinthoma, a sign of disease.^[6][3]
• 1541 – the form symptom.^[3][10]
• 1611 – a sign or indication of something.^[6][3]
• 1648 – verb, to indicate as by a symptom (now rare).^[6]
• 1722 – the slightest sign, a trace.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A change in the body or mind, such as a pain or a sensation, that a patient experiences and that shows the presence of a disease: A sore throat was her first symptom.^[12][10][6]
2. Any circumstance or event that accompanies something and is taken as a sign of it; an indication: Long queues were a symptom of the shortage.^[12][10][6]
3. A visible reaction of a plant to a pathogen.^[10]

Word family

• symptomless
• symptomize
• symptomatology

Related words

• asymptomatic
• asymptote
• symptomatic
• feather

Usage notes

In medicine a symptom is what the patient feels or reports, as against a sign, which a doctor can observe.^[12][10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins