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Webster 1913 Edition


aetiology

aeˊti-ol′o-gy

(ēˊtĭ-ŏl′ō̍-jy̆)
,
Noun.
[L.
aetologia
, Gr.
αἰτιολογία
;
αἰτία
cause +
λόγοσ
description: cf. F.
étiologie
.]
1.
The science, doctrine, or demonstration of causes; esp., the investigation of the causes of any disease; the science of the origin and development of things; etiology.
AS
2.
The assignment of a cause.

Definition 2024


aetiology

aetiology

See also: ætiology

English

Alternative forms

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.

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