Definition of "etiology" []

• The study of causes or origins. (noun)
• The branch of medicine that deals with the causes or origins of disease. (noun)
• Assignment of a cause, an origin, or a reason for something. (noun)
• The cause or origin of a disease or disorder as determined by medical diagnosis. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In fact, it appears that much of the paradigmatic conceptual framework they used to assess disease etiology is rooted as far back as the Bantu era of the third millennium BCE, and some features of the paradigm may be as deep-seated as the early Niger-Congo era of many millennia prior to that. 18"
• "Next to that he had written the word etiology followed by a question mark."
• "We begin with a look at Mesoamerican etiology, that is, the conceptual framework precontact Mexicans used to explain their illnesses, an essential starting point for understanding indigenous health concepts in the colonial period."