aetiology

See also: ætiology

English

Alternative forms

• ætiology
• etiology (American)

Etymology

From Latin aetiologia, from Ancient Greek αἰτιολογία ‎(aitiología), from αἰτία ‎(aitía, “cause”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /iːtɪˈɒlədʒi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /itiˈɑlədʒi/

Noun

aetiology ‎(countable and uncountable, plural aetiologies)

1. The establishment of a cause, origin, or reason for something.
   • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, I.c:

     I do not know where the idea first arose of enlisting internal (subjective) excitations of the sensory organs as well as external sensory stimuli; but it is in fact done in all the more recent accounts of the aetiology of dreams [transl. Traumätiologie].

2. The study of causes or causation.
3. (medicine) The study or investigation of the causes of disease; a scientific explanation for the origin of a disease.

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with etymology.

Derived terms

Derived terms

etiologic etiological

etiologically etiologist

Translations

study of causes or origins

• Asturian: etioloxía f
• Catalan: etiologia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 原因論 (zh), 原因论 (zh) ‎(yuányīnlùn)

• Czech: etiologie f
• Danish: ætiologi (da)
• Dutch: etiologie (nl) f
• Esperanto: etiologio
• Finnish: etiologia (fi), syyoppi
• French: étiologie (fr) f
• Galician: etioloxía (gl) f
• German: Ätiologie (de) f
• Greek: αιτιολογία (el) f ‎(aitiología)
• Hebrew: אטיולוגיה (he) f ‎(etiologia)
• Hungarian: etiológia

• Italian: eziologia (it) f
• Japanese: 原因論 ‎(げんいんろん, gen'inron)
• Khmer: សមុដ្ឋានវិទ្យា ‎(sa’muttʰaan vityie)
• Lithuanian: etiologija f
• Norwegian: etiologi
• Polish: etiologia f
• Portuguese: etiologia (pt) f
• Russian: этиоло́гия (ru) f ‎(etiológija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: етиологија f

  Roman: etiologija (sh) f

• Spanish: etiología (es) f
• Swedish: etiologi (sv) c
• Turkish: etiyoloji (tr)

origins of a disease

• Asturian: etioloxía f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 病原學 (zh), 病原学 (zh) ‎(bìngyuánxué), 病因學 (zh), 病因学 (zh) ‎(bìngyīnxué)

• Finnish: etiologia (fi), taudinsyy

• Galician: etioloxía (gl) f
• Greek: αιτιολογία (el) f ‎(aitiología)
• Portuguese: etiologia (pt) f
• Tagalog: palasanhiang-sakit