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 organizǎm)
• 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