Pathological means caused by disease, or compulsive beyond reason. A pathological condition, a pathological liar, pathological fear.
The medical sense is neutral and technical: pathological means arising from disease as against normal variation. The loose sense — a pathological liar — borrows a clinical word for emphasis, which doctors find unhelpful and everybody else finds useful.
1adjectivepathologicalCaused by disease, or compulsive beyond reason.
“Her pathological fear of germs means she won't touch door handles.”
pathological is a quality.
French
pathologie
English
pathology
English, today
pathological
Built from
From pathology + -ical. pathology Borrowed from French pathologie, from grc + πᾰ́θος. From French pathologie, from Ancient Greek πάθος (“disease”) and -λογία (“study of”). by surface analysis, path- + -ology or patho- + -logy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA