noso-
(ˈnɒsəʊ)
combining form of Gr. νόσος disease, used in a number of compounds, chiefly pathological, as † ˈnosocome [a. F. nosocome, ad. L. nosocomium, Gr. νοσοκοµεῖον], a hospital. Obs.—1 nosoˈcomial [cf. prec.] a., belonging or pertaining to a hospital. † nosognoˈmonic a. (see quot.). Obs.—1 nosomaˈthete [Gr. µαθητής], a student of diseases. noˈsometer (see quot.). noˈsonomy, ‘the doctrine of the natural laws by which diseases occur’ (Mayne, 1857). ˈnosophile rare [-phil, -phile], a person who is morbidly attracted by sickness or disease. nosoˈphobia, morbid apprehensiveness of disease. ˈnosophyte (see quot.). nosopoˈetic a., producing or causing disease. nosoˈtaxy, the distribution and classification of diseases (Dunglison, 1855). nosoˈtheory, the theory of disease (Mayne, 1857). nosotoxiˈcosis (see quot.). noˈsotrophous a.; noˈsotrophy (see quots.).
Various other combs. of doubtful currency, such as nosogenesis, -genetic, -geny, -mania, are given in the Syd. Soc. Lex. and some recent Dicts.
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. li. 227 Gargantua..gave order that the wounded should be drest and had care of in his great Hospital or *Nosocome. |
| 1855 Dunglison Med. Lex. s.v., *Nosocomial or hospital fever. 1891 C. Creighton Hist. Epidem. Brit. 95 The purely nosocomial part of these charities was in not a few instances for the immediate relief of the monasteries themselves. |
| 1655 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1687) 165 Medicine is of five kinds... *Nosognomonick discerns diseases. |
| 1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk I. 106 Whether the state of the stomach depends on the state of the mind, or vice versa, I am not *nosomathete enough to say. |
| 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 543 The pulse becomes a sort of *nosometer, or measurer of the violence and danger of the disease. |
| 1665 Drage (title), A Physical *Nosonomy; or, A new and true Description of the Law of God (called Nature) in the Body of Man. 1855 Dunglison Med. Lex., Nosonomy. |
| 1895 tr. M. Nordau's Degeneration v. i. 539 Sadists, ‘bestials’, *nosophiles, and necrophiles, etc., find legal opportunities to gratify their inclinations. 1905 Smart Set Sept. 113/2 Names of Satanic painters from Hell-Fire Breughel to Arnold Böcklin..passed through the halls of this nosophile's memory. |
| 1889 Lancet 9 Nov. 966/1 *Nosophobia is certainly much more frequent in man, probably because women act as nurses, and consequently have no fear of infection. |
| 1890 Gould Med. Dict., *Nosophyte,..a term applied to any pathogenic microbe, or minute parasitic organism which produces disease. |
| 1733 Arbuthnot On Air vi. §23. 156, I shall make a few Observations upon the Qualities of the Air, so far as they are *Nosopoetick, that is, have a Power of producing Diseases. 1834 Fraser's Mag. X. 569 Least of all can we explain the nosopoetic effects of atmospherical changes. |
| 1892 Syd. Soc. Lex., *Nosotoxicosis, a condition in which morbid symptoms are exhibited, which are dependent on the presence of toxic bases in the blood [etc.]. |
| 1857 Mayne Expos. Lex., Nosotrophus.., nourishing or maintaining disease: *nosotrophous. Nosotrophia.., the nourishment or nutrition of disease; *nosotrophy. |