Comorbidity
/ˌkoʊ.mɔːrˈbɪd.ə.ti/noun
The presence of one or more additional diseases or disorders occurring with a primary condition.
Did you know?The word is modern medical Latin, but its soul is ancient: it combines the Latin prefix com- (“with, together”) with morbidus (“sick, diseased”), from morbus (“disease”), a root that also gave English morbid.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*mer-
“to die, to waste away”
Latin
Latin
morbus
“disease, sickness”
Latin
Latin
morbidus
“sick, diseased”
Latin
Latin
com- + morbidus
“with sickness, accompanying illness”
Late 20th Century
English
comorbidity
“the coexistence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in the same person”