FromFrenchpathologie, fromAncient Greekπάθος(páthos,“disease”) and-λογία(-logía,“study of”).
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pathology (usuallyuncountable,pluralpathologies)
Some house style guides for medical publications avoid the "illness" sense ofpathology(“disease, state of ill health”) and replace it withpathosis. The rationale is that the-ology form should be reserved for the "study of disease" sense and for the medical specialty that provides microscopy and other laboratory services (e.g.,cytology,histology) to clinicians. This rationale drives similar usage preferences aboutetiology ("cause" sense versus "study of causes" sense),methodology ("methods" sense versus "study of methods" sense), and other-ology words.
Not all such natural usage can be purged gracefully, but the goal is to reserve the-ology form to its "study" sense when practical. Not all publications bother with this prescription, because most physicians don't do so in their own speech (and the context makes clear the sense intended).
Another limitation is thatpathology(“illness”) has an adjectival form (pathologic), but the corresponding adjectival form ofpathosis (pathotic) is idiomatically missing from English (defective declension), sopathologic is obligate for both senses ("diseased" and "related to the study of disease"); this likely helps keep the "illness" sense ofpathology in natural use (as the readily retrieved noun counterpart topathologic in the "diseased" sense).
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