Dictionary

retrodiagnose en · VERB

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Latin retrōder. English retro- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *dwísder. Ancient Greek διά (diá) Ancient Greek δια- (dia-) Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₃sḱétider. Proto-Hellenic *gignṓskō Ancient Greek γῐγνώσκω (gĭgnṓskō) Ancient Greek δῐαγῐγνώσκω (dĭagĭgnṓskō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Ancient Greek δῐᾰ́γνωσῐς (dĭắgnōsĭs)der. Latin diagnōsisder. English diagnosisbf. English diagnose English retrodiagnose From retro- + diagnose.

Meanings

1. To retroactively diagnose a dead person with a medical or psychological condition.
   • It's still really important in medicine, of course, but now you can do anthropology with genetics, or retrodiagnose famous historical figures, or even do genetics-based origami and computing. 2012, Sam Kean, The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:
   • Rather than retrodiagnosing colonial patients through glimpses and gaps in their stories—was this one a paranoid schizophrenic? did that one suffer major depressive psychosis? was a third borderline?— […] 2007, Richard C. Keller, Colonial Madness: Psychiatry in French North Africa, The University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 85:
   • At the outset of his article on Cavendish, however, Sacks stated firmly that he was not just jumping on the bandwagon of retrodiagnosing famous geeks from history with a trendy disorder. 2015, Steve Silberman, chapter 1, in Megan Newman, editor, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, New York: Avery, →ISBN, page 39:

Forms