symptom
pronunciation
How to pronounce symptom in British English:
UK [ˈsɪmptəm]
How to pronounce symptom in American English:
US [ˈsɪmptəm]
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- Noun:
- (medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease
- anything that accompanies X and is regarded as an indication of X's existence
Word Origin
- symptom
- symptom: [16] A symptom is etymologically something that ‘happens’ – an occurrence or phenomenon. The word’s application to physiological phenomena as signs of disease is a secondary development. It comes via late Latin symptōma from Greek súmptōma ‘occurrence’, a derivative of sumpíptein ‘fall together’, hence ‘fall on, happen to’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix sun- ‘together’ and píptein ‘fall’.
- symptom (n.)
- 1540s, re-Latinized from sinthoma (late 14c.), from Medieval Latin sinthoma "symptom of a disease," altered from Late Latin symptoma, from Greek symptoma "a happening, accident, disease," from stem of sympiptein "to befall, happen; coincide, fall together," from assimilated form of syn- "together" (see syn-) + piptein "to fall," from PIE *pi-pt-, reduplicated form of root *pet- "to rush; to fly" (see petition (n.)). Spelling restored in early Modern English in part by influence of Middle French symptome (16c.). General (non-medical) use is from 1610s.
Synonym
Example
- 1. They are also a symptom of dysfunctional political systems .
- 2. That is a symptom of a broad national problem .
- 3. A rapid rise in margin deposits has been one symptom of this .
- 4. This reluctance to master and apply conceptual knowledge is a symptom of intellectual laziness .
- 5. But admissions are a symptom , not a cause .