idiopathy
(ɪdɪˈɒpəθɪ)
[ad. mod.L. idiopathīa, a. Gr. ἰδιοπάθεια (Galen): see idio- and -pathy. Cf. F. idiopathie.]
† 1. A feeling or sensation peculiar to an individual or class; an individual or personal state of feeling.
| 1647 H. More Song of Soul ii. To Rdr., All men are so full of their own phansies and idiopathyes, that they scarce have the civility to interchange any words with a stranger. Ibid. (Interpret. unusual words), Idiopathie,..is ones proper peculiar πάθος, mine or thine, being affected thus or so upon this or that occasion. a 1688 Cudworth Immut. Morality (1731) 54 It is Impossible to demonstrate..that any two Men have the very same Phantasms or Ideas of Red or Green, these being Idiopathies. |
2. Path. † a. A morbid condition originating in the part affected, and not occasioned by disease elsewhere. Obs. b. A disease not preceded or occasioned by any other; a primary disease.
| a 1640 Jackson Creed x. xxxiii. §9 The idiopathy as physicians speak is in the soul, the sympathy only in the spirit or conscience. 1671 Phil. Trans. VI. 2292 The Parts, which are primarily and by idiopathy affected in a Consumption. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Idiopathie, in Physick, a primary Disease. 1833 New Monthly Mag. XXXIX. 129 This moral idiopathy, which neither proceeds from nor depends on any other disease,..this itch for seeing memorable places..is peculiarly English. |