Etymologically
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symptom

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsɪm(p)təm/[1]

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
  • 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