Prefix · disease / suffering / feeling
From Greek "pathos" (suffering, feeling): appears in medical terms about disease and in emotional words like empathy.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
"Path-" / "patho-" comes from Greek "pathos," meaning suffering, experience, or emotion. In medicine it generates words about disease; in everyday language it underpins emotional concepts like empathy and sympathy. One Greek root, two very different domains.
Spanish uses "pato-" in medical terms: patología (pathology), patógeno (pathogen). The suffix "-pathy" becomes "-patía" in Spanish: empatía (empathy), simpatía (sympathy), apatía (apathy). Interestingly, "simpático" in Spanish (nice, likeable) comes from this very root.
Path- / patho- appears both at the start and end of words:
When "-pathy" ends a word, it often signals a medical disorder: neuropathy, osteopathy, psychopathy. It can also describe a treatment system (homeopathy) or a mental phenomenon (telepathy).
path-/ˈpæθ.oʊ/
Tap the button to hear how the prefix sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
"Sympathy" (sym- = together with) is compassion felt from outside someone's experience. "Empathy" (em- = within/into) is imagining yourself inside their experience. Therapists and counselors often emphasize this distinction.
A trick to remember it
Path- = suffering or feeling. In medicine it means disease (pathology, pathogen). In emotions it means feeling (empathy, apathy, antipathy). The same Greek root captures both physical suffering and emotional experience — because the ancient Greeks saw them as deeply connected.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
Which word best describes a complete lack of interest, emotion, or concern?
The prefix path- from Greek "pathos" (suffering, feeling): appears in medical terms about disease and in emotional words like empathy. In Spanish it usually maps to pato-.
The prefix path- is pronounced /ˈpæθ.oʊ/. For example, "pathology".
"ology" becomes "pathology". It is a typical example of the path- prefix.
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