Diagnosis Definition: Tracing the Greek Roots of Medical Identification

Definition: Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon, typically applied in a medical context to determine a disease or condition based on its symptoms and tests.

Etymology and Origin: The term originates from the Greek ‘diagnosis’, meaning ‘a discerning, distinguishing’, from ‘diagignōskein’ (‘to discern’), which combines ‘dia-‘, meaning ‘apart’, and ‘gignōskein’, meaning ‘to recognize, know’. This reflects the process of distinguishing a disease or condition from others by its characteristic signs and test results.