aetiology

plural aetiologies · alternative archaic ætiology · alternative aitiology · alternative Canada US etiology

1. countableuncountableThe establishment of a cause, origin, or reason for something.

   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 [translating Traumätiologie].

   1999, Sigmund Freud, translated by Joyce Crick, The Interpretation of Dreams, I.c

2. countableuncountableThe study of causes or causation.
3. uncountablemedicineThe study or investigation of the causes of disease; a scientific explanation for the origin of a disease.
4. countablemedicineA cause of disease or of any particular case of a disease (but see pathology § Usage notes).