2011_10_12 etiology \ee-tee-OL-uh-jee\, noun, the study of the causes of diseases

etiology \ee-tee-OL-uh-jee\, noun:
1. In Pathology the study of the causes of diseases.
2. Any study of causes, causation, or causality, as in philosophy, biology, or physics.
The etiology of desire is often a muddled search; we insert meaning into the accidental brush of a hand, or in the fleeting sidelong glance of our coveted.
-- Micah Nathan, Gods of Aberdeen
For present purposes, this work is significant for one reason alone: it is typical of the interpretative battle that raged throughout the nineteenth century which sought to provide an etiology of evil.
-- Joris-Karl Huysmans, The Damned
Etiology is from the Greek aitiología, determining the cause of something, equivalent to aití cause and logia study.