therapy
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈθer.ə.pi/[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from New Latin therapia,[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek θεραπεία (therapeía, “service, attendance; curing, healing”),[2][3][4] from therapeúein “to attend, serve; to treat medically”,[2][3] related to therápōn “attendant”, a word of uncertain origin.[3] Middle English had terapeucia “therapeutics” in the early 15th century.[2] It is related to therapeutic.[3][4]
Earliest recorded meaning
The medical treatment of disease: 1846 in the OED, Barnhart, Etymonline and MWU.[5][3][2][4] The adjective therapeutic is older (1646).[3]
Semantic evolution
The Greek word first meant service or attendance, then care of the sick.[2][3] In English it was medical from the start, and came to include psychiatric treatment,[5] so that therapy alone is now often short for psychotherapy.[6][7] Many compounds name a kind of treatment, such as physical therapy, speech therapy and group therapy.[5][6] Therapist is from 1886.[3]
Timeline
Modern meaning
Noun
- Treatment of an illness, injury or disability, especially without drugs or surgery.
- Psychotherapy.
- Something that has a healing effect.
Related words
- therapeutic
- therapist
- psychotherapy
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins