nosopoetic/nosopoietic (adj.)
Pronunciation: [no-sê-po-'et-ik]
Definition: Not what you think - disease-causing, infectious. This word bounds through Greek, Latin, and French to arrive at our lingual doorstep in its present form. Noso means "disease," poi(etik)os "making, producing." A close synonym is pathogenic.
My classroom seems to have a nosopoetical air about it. That mold growing on my ceiling cannot be soothing for my infected chest.
There are many related words to the noso root, such as nosophobia (fear of disease), nosology (the classification and study of diseases), nostrophy (the care and treatment of diseases), nosography (the description of diseases). There's even nosocomial (caused by or in a hospital).
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