Dictionary

pathologize en · VERB

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek πάσχω (páskhō)der. Ancient Greek πᾰ́θος (pắthos) Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *lóǵos Proto-Hellenic *lógos Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logĭ́ā)bor. Latin -logialbor. French -logie French pathologiebor. English pathology Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English pathologize From pathology + -ize.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease.
   • Some childhood behavior has been pathologized as attention-deficit disorder.
   • Many pain patients have had doctors who pathologized them, told them their pain was unreal. 2001 December 16, Melanie Thernstrom, “Pain, the Disease”, in The New York Times, retrieved 12 Jul 2011:
   • To pathologize China's industries as corrupt not only reeks of centuries-old Yellow Peril rhetoric but also fails to acknowledge the shortcomings of transnational regulations. 2007 July 23, Rachel Endo, “Inbox”, in Time:
   • Near-synonym: medicalize
   • Their results showed that cisgenderist language is commonplace in professional communications between psychologists about children who self-defined their gender, that the most pathologizing language is found in literature by mental health professionals, and that those most closely tied to the most prolific author in the field through publication are most likely to use language that pathologizes and misgenders children. 2014, Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, Feminist Research Practice: A Primer, 2nd edition, Los Angeles, C.A. […]: SAGE, →ISBN, page 63:
   • My automatic reaction was to deal with the anxiety he evoked in me by pathologizing him as paranoid and obsessive compulsive. 2009, Joseph G. Ponterotto et al., Handbook of Multicultural Counseling, →ISBN, page 142:

Forms

Deriveds

repathologize · depathologize · pathologization · unpathologized · pathologisation · overpathologize

Synonyms

medicalize

Translations (7)

hu patologizál (to characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease) · cmn 病理化 (to characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease) · fr pathologiser (to characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease) · pt patologizar (to characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease) · da sygeliggøre (to characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease) · de pathologisieren (to characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease) · es patologizar (to characterize as a pathology or disease; to characterize (a person) as suffering from a disease)