Etymology

pathogen

path·o·gen
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Today it means: An agent that can cause disease, especially an infectious microorganism, such as a bacterium, virus, protozoon or fungus. Full definition →

Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- ← Ancient Greek γένος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromγένος“birth”
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ǵenh₁-“lineage”
  3. English todaypathogen

From patho- + -gen. Second element ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“lineage”) through Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “birth”)

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*ǵenh₁- all →

kinghydrogennatalIgnatiuspunygenitiveimpregnablealkinau naturelgemmulegneevepalingenesiapalingenesispuisne

Ancient Greekγένος all →

genocidegeninamphigenousgeno-genosome

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.