etiology

Noun

aetiology (countable and uncountable, plural aetiologies)

1. The establishment of a cause, origin, or reason for something.
   • I do not know where the idea first arose of enlisting internal (subjective) excitations of the sensory organs as well as external sensory stimuli; but it is in fact done in all the more recent accounts of the aetiology of dreams [translating Traumätiologie].1999, Sigmund Freud, translated by Joyce Crick, The Interpretation of Dreams, I.c
2. The study of causes or causation.
3. (uncountable) The study or investigation of the causes of disease; a scientific explanation for the origin of a disease.
4. (countable) A cause of disease or of any particular case of a disease (but see pathology § Usage notes).