Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Osteopathy
/ˌɒstiˈɒpəθi/noun
A system of manual treatment based on manipulating the musculoskeletal system, and in the United States a full branch of licensed medical practice.
The Greek roots
ὀστέον
ostéon
bone
πάθος
páthos
suffering, affliction
Literally: “bone suffering”
The story of the word
Andrew Taylor Still coined the name in 1885 for the method he had built after losing three children to meningitis and turning against the drugs of his day. He was copying the shape of homeopathy, where -pathy names a therapy, but critics read the compound the other way and complained that it literally says 'bone disease'. Still kept it anyway.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → American coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1885
Same family
osteoporosisosteoarthritishomeopathypathology
In a sentence
He tried osteopathy for the back pain after two rounds of physiotherapy went nowhere.