syndrome
Pluralsyndromes
- 1A recognizable pattern of signs, symptoms, or behaviors that occur together, especially marking a disease or a medical or psychological condition.
After months of tests, the specialist identified a rare syndrome behind the boy's symptoms.
Several syndromes share overlapping features, which makes early diagnosis difficult.
Note
Greek supplies the picture: sundromē, a "running together," from sun- "with" and dromos "running". The word describes symptoms that keep company. In medicine it names the pattern itself, which can be recognized even when its cause is unknown or multiple. It follows its qualifier, often a person's name or a description: Down syndrome, restless-leg syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome.
- 2A set of characteristics regarded as marking a particular type or condition, usually one with negative effects.
Critics described the company's refusal to admit faults as a classic syndrome of corporate denial.
The not-invented-here syndrome leads teams to reject good ideas from outside.
Note
The clinic's word carried into ordinary life, where it borrows the authority of the medical pattern to name a habit or predicament. It usually follows a hyphenated phrase, as in not-in-my-backyard syndrome or tip-of-the-tongue syndrome. The tone is often wry, as in John D'Emilio's "You know the syndrome" about the pressure of a Saturday night. Expect it for something unwelcome, because a pleasant pattern rarely earns the word.
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Origin
A learned borrowing from New Latin syndrome, from Ancient Greek συνδρομή (sundromḗ, "concurrence of symptoms"), based on σύνδρομος (súndromos, "running together"), from συν- (sun-, "with") plus δρόμος (drómos, "running, course").