pathogen

English

Etymology

From patho- +‎ -gen. Second element ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“lineage”) through Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “birth”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpæθəd͡ʒn̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: path‧o‧gen

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

pathogen (plural pathogens)

2. (pathology, immunology) An agent that can cause disease, especially an infectious microorganism, such as a bacterium, virus, protozoon or fungus.

   Synonym: infectious agent

   Hypernyms: agent, entity

   • 2013 January, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 9 February 2017, page 64:

     In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.

Usage notes

In most contexts, the term pathogen is exclusively applied to infectious microorganisms, including viruses, or their components (such as prions), and does not cover other harmful substances such as asbestos or various toxins. Some authors reserve the term for the microorganisms that are the cause of an observed case of disease, so in this usage the same microorganism that is pathogenic in one host may not be categorized as a pathogen in another infected host, where it may often be a commensal.

Derived terms

• allopathogen
• antipathogen
• biopathogen
• copathogen
• endopathogen
• enteropathogen
• entomopathogen
• exopathogen
• hemopathogen
• immunopathogen
• micropathogen
• multipathogen
• mycopathogen
• neuropathogen
• nonpathogen
• odontopathogen
• oncopathogen
• otopathogen
• pathogenesis
• pathogenic
• pathogenous
• pathogeny
• periodontopathogen
• periopathogen
• phytopathogen
• sinopathogen
• uropathogen
• zoopathogen

Related terms

• pathologically
• pathological, pathologic
• pathologization
• pathology
• pathosis

Translations

any organism or substance that causes disease

• Albanian: sëmundjeshkaktues
• Arabic: مسببات الأمراض
• Bulgarian: болестотворен организъм m (bolestotvoren organizăm)
• Catalan: patogen (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 病原體 / 病原体 (zh) (bìngyuántǐ)

• Czech: patogen m
• Dutch: pathogeen (nl), ziektekiem (nl) f
• Finnish: patogeeni (fi), taudinaiheuttaja (fi)
• French: pathogène (fr)
• German: Krankheitserreger (de) m
• Greek: παθογόνος (el) m (pathogónos)
• Hebrew: פתוגן m (patogen)
• Hindi: रोगाणु m (rogāṇu), रोगजनक (hi) m (rogajnak)
• Hungarian: kórokozó (hu), patogén (hu)
• Indonesian: patogen (id)
• Irish: pataigin f
• Italian: patogeno (it) m, agente patogeno m
• Japanese: 病原体 (ja) (びょうげんたい, byōgentai), 病原菌 (ja) (びょうげんきん, byōgenkin) (especially for microorganism)
• Kannada: ರೋಗಾಣು (kn) (rōgāṇu)
• Kazakh: патоген (patogen)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: hokara nexweşiyê f, tûşker

• Latin: pathogenum n
• Latvian: patogēns m
• Lithuanian: patogenas m, ligos sukėlėjas m
• Malay: patogen
• Māori: tukumate, moroiti tahumaero
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: patogen n

  Nynorsk: patogen n

• Occitan: patogèn (oc) m
• Persian: بیماری‌زا (fa) (bimâri-zâ)
• Polish: patogen (pl)
• Portuguese: patógeno m
• Quechua: unquchiq
• Romanian: agent patogen (ro)
• Russian: патоге́н (ru) m (patogén)
• Slovak: patogén
• Slovene: patogen m
• Spanish: patógeno (es) m
• Sundanese: ᮊᮥᮙᮔ᮪ (kuman)
• Swedish: smittämne (sv) n, patogen (sv) c
• Tagalog: mulsakit
• Tamil: நோய்க்காரணி (nōykkāraṇi)
• Telugu: వ్యాధికారకం (vyādhikārakaṁ)
• Thai: จุลชีพก่อโรค (th)
• Turkish: patojen (tr)
• Ukrainian: патоген m (patohen)
• Vietnamese: mầm bệnh (vi)

Anagrams

• heptagon, phone tag

German

Etymology

From πάθος (páthos, “suffering, pain”) + -γενής (-genḗs, “producer of”). Equivalent to patho- + -gen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpatoˈɡeːn/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pa‧tho‧gen

Adjective

pathogen (strong nominative masculine singular pathogener, comparative pathogener, superlative am pathogensten)

1. pathogenic

   Synonym: krankheitserregend

Declension

Positive forms of pathogen number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist pathogen sie ist pathogen es ist pathogen sie sind pathogen strong declension (without article) nominative pathogener pathogene pathogenes pathogene genitive pathogenen pathogener pathogenen pathogener dative pathogenem pathogener pathogenem pathogenen accusative pathogenen pathogene pathogenes pathogene weak declension (with definite article) nominative der pathogene die pathogene das pathogene die pathogenen genitive des pathogenen der pathogenen des pathogenen der pathogenen dative dem pathogenen der pathogenen dem pathogenen den pathogenen accusative den pathogenen die pathogene das pathogene die pathogenen mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein pathogener eine pathogene ein pathogenes (keine) pathogenen genitive eines pathogenen einer pathogenen eines pathogenen (keiner) pathogenen dative einem pathogenen einer pathogenen einem pathogenen (keinen) pathogenen accusative einen pathogenen eine pathogene ein pathogenes (keine) pathogenen Comparative forms of pathogen number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist pathogener sie ist pathogener es ist pathogener sie sind pathogener strong declension (without article) nominative pathogenerer pathogenere pathogeneres pathogenere genitive pathogeneren pathogenerer pathogeneren pathogenerer dative pathogenerem pathogenerer pathogenerem pathogeneren accusative pathogeneren pathogenere pathogeneres pathogenere weak declension (with definite article) nominative der pathogenere die pathogenere das pathogenere die pathogeneren genitive des pathogeneren der pathogeneren des pathogeneren der pathogeneren dative dem pathogeneren der pathogeneren dem pathogeneren den pathogeneren accusative den pathogeneren die pathogenere das pathogenere die pathogeneren mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein pathogenerer eine pathogenere ein pathogeneres (keine) pathogeneren genitive eines pathogeneren einer pathogeneren eines pathogeneren (keiner) pathogeneren dative einem pathogeneren einer pathogeneren einem pathogeneren (keinen) pathogeneren accusative einen pathogeneren eine pathogenere ein pathogeneres (keine) pathogeneren Superlative forms of pathogen number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist am pathogensten sie ist am pathogensten es ist am pathogensten sie sind am pathogensten strong declension (without article) nominative pathogenster pathogenste pathogenstes pathogenste genitive pathogensten pathogenster pathogensten pathogenster dative pathogenstem pathogenster pathogenstem pathogensten accusative pathogensten pathogenste pathogenstes pathogenste weak declension (with definite article) nominative der pathogenste die pathogenste das pathogenste die pathogensten genitive des pathogensten der pathogensten des pathogensten der pathogensten dative dem pathogensten der pathogensten dem pathogensten den pathogensten accusative den pathogensten die pathogenste das pathogenste die pathogensten mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein pathogenster eine pathogenste ein pathogenstes (keine) pathogensten genitive eines pathogensten einer pathogensten eines pathogensten (keiner) pathogensten dative einem pathogensten einer pathogensten einem pathogensten (keinen) pathogensten accusative einen pathogensten eine pathogenste ein pathogenstes (keine) pathogensten

Derived terms

• Pathogenität

Further reading

• “pathogen”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[2] (in German)
• “pathogen” in Duden online
• “pathogen”, in Online-Wortschatz-Informationssystem Deutsch (in German), Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, 2008–
• “pathogen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon