A,Word,A,Day

[Dave Monroe]

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

pathography

PRONUNCIATION:
(puh-THOG-ruh-fee)

MEANING:
noun: A biography that focuses on the negative.

ETYMOLOGY:
>From Greek patho- (suffering, disease) + -graphy (writing). In the
beginning, pathography was a description of a disease. Then the word
came to be applied to the study of an individual or a community as
relating to the influence of a disease. Now the term mostly refers to
a biography focusing on the negative. Earliest documented use: 1848.

USAGE:
“Pizzichini’s book, though nonjudgmental, still feels like a pathography.”
Mick Sussman; The Blue Hour; The New York Times; Jul 19, 2009.

http://wordsmith.org/words/pathography.html
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l