Feeling Your Way Through

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The ancient Greek root “path” means both “feeling” and “disease.” It made its way into Late Latin, and then into Middle English, and appears in many modern English words. 

MONDAY - Sympathy, Empathy, Antipathy, Apathy (Noun)

One meaning of the root word PATH is “feeling.”  The prefix "sym-" means “with” or “together.” In English, we use the word sympathy to describe an experience of “feeling together with” another person, especially someone experiencing sadness or misfortune. The prefix “em-” means “in” and when added to PATH, gives us empathy, which is an ability to share someone else’s feelings vicariously. Both sympathy and empathy refer to a sensitivity to the emotional experience of another. While some people insist on a distinction between these two words, many people use them more or less interchangeably.

The prefix “anti” means “against,” so antipathy means “hostility” or “opposition.” And finally, the prefix “a-” means “without,” so apathy means “without feeling.” An apathetic person is indifferent, incurious, essentially numbed to life.

TUESDAY - Pathos (Noun) Pathetic (Adjective)

The Greek word “pathos” means suffering and is used in English to refer to something that arouses feelings of pity and tenderness. For example, there is a quality of pathos in dramatic scenes involving the sorrows of children. The English word pathetic originally meant “affecting the emotions” and carried no hint of disdain. A pathetic scene would simply be one that evoked tender feelings in the observer. However, in contemporary English usage, pathetic carries a much more negative implication. If you call someone pathetic, you’re calling them a loser, a washout, a sorry excuse for a human--suggesting a total lack of sympathy!

WEDNESDAY - Pathology (Noun) Pathological (Adjective)

The suffix “-ology” refers to a branch of study or knowledge. Since one meaning of PATH is “disease”, the English word pathology refers to the study of diseases. The word is also used to refer to diseased or abnormal conditions themselves: a pathology of the liver is a liver disease. The adjective pathological means “diseased” or “disordered.”  It is used not only to refer to physical and mental illnesses but also simply to extreme behavior. If you call someone a “pathological liar,” you may be diagnosing an illness that causes the person to lie or you may just be implying that the person lies all the time, and without apparent compunction.

THURSDAY - Pathogen (Noun)

The root word “gen” refers to something that causes or produces something.  So a pathogen is a microscopic organism causes or produces disease in a person, animal, or plant.  Viruses, some bacteria, some fungi, and parasites are all pathogens.  Before the advent of modern medicine, people sometimes believed that diseases like cholera were caused by “miasma,” or “bad air.” Once germ theory arose, however, germs, rather than miasmas, were recognized as the pathogens responsible for many illnesses.

FRIDAY - Idiopathic (Adjective)

The Greek word-forming element “idio” means “one’s own” or “personal.” A familiar English word using this morpheme is “idiosyncratic,” meaning “eccentric,” “quirky”—a characteristic or behavior unique to and characteristic of an individual. When we use “idio” as a prefix with PATH, we get the word idiopathic, which might be translated literally as a disease that arises from the self.

A disease or condition is labelled idiopathic when no external cause can be identified. If there is no evidence that a pathogen like a virus or a parasite caused the disease, it may be classified as idiopathic. Of course, this need not mean that no external agent DID cause the disease—only that no one has succeeded in finding such a cause. In short, idiopathic might be a doctor’s way of saying “I have no idea!”