Symptom

(sim'tum.) [From Gr. symptōma; sumpipto, I fall in with.] (Med.) Any appearance in a disease which serves to indicate or point out its cause, approach, duration, event, . Particular symptoms, which more uniformly accompany a morbid state of the body, and are characteristic of it, are called pathognomonic or diagnostic symptoms. In a strict sense, however, S. means no more than the consequences of diseases, and of their causes, exclusive of the diseases and causes themselves. -A symptomatic disease isone which proceeds from some prior disorder; as a symptomatic fever, proceeding from local pain or local inflammation. It is opposed to idiopathic. [s. 873]