Etymograph

English

psychopathology

Psychopathology comes from French pathologie ‘pathology’, from Ancient Greek λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning…’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-1‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lóǵos1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógos1reconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγος1lógos‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentpathologie1‘pathology’
  6. English1500–presentpathology1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2012psychopathology1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English psychopathology
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: “Our fear and loathing for parasites is obviously adaptive.…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-Wiktionary, English psychopathology‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lóǵosWiktionary, English psychopathologyreconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógosWiktionary, English psychopathologyreconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγοςWiktionary, English psychopathologylógos‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentpathologieWiktionary, English psychopathology‘pathology’
  6. English1500–presentpathologyWiktionary, English psychopathology
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2012psychopathologyWiktionary, English psychopathology. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: “Our fear and loathing for parasites is obviously adaptive.…”

A compound of psycho- + pathology

Ancient Greek ψῡ́χω ‘to blow’

Ancient Greek ψυχή ‘soul’

English psycho-

Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning…’

Proto-Indo-European *lóǵos

Proto-Hellenic *lógos

Ancient Greek λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’

French pathologie

English pathology

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning…’

election, collection, technology, lesson, select, elite, eligible, collect, elect, elegant, legion, coil, negligence, catalogue, negligible, negligent, diligent, leach, lexicon, lexical, cull, astrology, epilogue, dialectic, cosmology, alexia, legation, lignite, lexis, lignin, gynecologist, ineligibility, dialogic, 150 more

through Proto-Hellenic *lógos

archaeological, etymology, astrological, homologous, pathophysiology, neurophysiology, bacteriological, 102 more

through Ancient Greek λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’

logic, apology, trilogy, analogy, sociology, terminology, logos, physiology, monologue, logistic, prologue, archaeologist, eulogy, epistemology, entomology, etiology, apologia, bacteriology, bacteriologist, syllogism, 108 more

through English pathology

pathological, pathologist, histopathology, 35 more

Today it means

noun The study of the origin, development, diagnosis and treatment of mental and behavioural disorders.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “psychopathology”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- / psychopathology

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