predispositionn.
/ˌpriːdɪspəˈzɪʃn/, U.S. /ˈˌpridɪspəˈzɪʃ(ə)n/ 1. A pre-existing tendency to suffer from a disease or medical condition; susceptibility to disease.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > [noun] > susceptibility to disease
predisposition1622
diathesis1681
miasm1833
vulnerability1881
1622 F. Bacon Hist. Raigne Henry VII 9 It [sc. the sweating sickness] was conceiued..to proceed from a malignity in the constitution of the Aire, gathered by the predispositions of Seasons.
1676 R. Wiseman Severall Chirurg. Treat. iv. ii. 249 External Accidents are often the occasional cause of the Kings-Evil, but they always suppose a predisposition of the Body to it.
1707 J. Floyer Physician's Pulse-watch 311 Table of the Pulses according to Diseases, and the Pre-Disposition to them.
1824 L. H. Sigourney Sketch Connecticut xviii. 277 The disease, to which my early youth evinced a predisposition, and which I probably inherit from both parents, soon revealed itself.
1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. & Morbid Anat. (ed. 2) 101 Here..there may exist some special predisposition of the tissues themselves.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) xii. 303 The chief prodromal causes were lack of adequate exercise in trench life, constriction of the superficial circulation by puttees or boots, and individual predisposition.
1968 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 114 709/1 One of the few indicators of a possible predisposition to mental illness in a given individual is a positive family history of such illness.
2001 Sci. Amer. Jan. 14/1 He found that a presymptomatic person with a genetic predisposition to a serious condition faces little or no difficulty in obtaining health insurance.
2. gen. The condition of being predisposed or inclined beforehand (to do something, or to a particular opinion, course of action, etc.); a prior inclination or pre-existing tendency. Also: a propensity in a person to respond or react in a certain way.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > wish or inclination > [noun] > predisposition
proclivity1561
predisposition1626
the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > tendency > [noun] > previous inclination or predisposition
predisposition1626
predisposedness1645
predeterminationa1716
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §236 That the Spirits of the Teacher put in Motion, should worke with the Spirits of the Learner, a Pre-disposition to offer to Imitate.
1660 Bp. J. Taylor Worthy Communicant ii. ii. 132 St. Austin reckoning what pre~disposition is necessary by way of preparation to the holy sacrament.
1672 I. Newton in Philos. Trans. 1671 (Royal Soc.) 6 3081 Not by any virtue of the glass..but from a predisposition, which every particular Ray hath to suffer a particular degree of Refraction.
1705 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels I. 259 Constituent Parts of Repentance, and necessary Predispositions to Forgiveness.
1788 J. Madison Federalist Papers xxxvii. 2 They have scanned the proposed constitution, not only with a predisposition to censure; but with a predetermination to condemn.
1800 J. Moore Mordaunt I. ix. 109 How then could he make a proposal of this nature to any woman who had not, in some part of her conduct, betrayed a predisposition to grant it.
1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xxxvii. 407 Mr. Benjamin Allen had perhaps a greater predisposition to maudlinism than he had ever known before.
1887 J. R. Lowell Democracy & Other Addr. 203 The Indians showed a far greater natural predisposition for disfurnishing the outside of other people's heads than for furnishing the insides of their own.
1936 Discovery Aug. 254/1 All these effects..can be shown to result from psychological inhibitions and predispositions.
1980 Sci. Amer. Apr. 112/1 It is generally accepted that most animal characteristics are the product of an interaction between inherited predispositions and the environment.
2003 P. A. Cohen China Unbound ii. 52 There was a strong predisposition to believe that China's culture..was dynamic and changing in nature.
Derivatives
ˌpredispoˈsitional adj. of or relating to predisposition.
ΚΠ
1861 H. Bushnell Christian Nurture ii. i. 234 Results of some predispositional state, or initially sanctified property.
1940 Jrnl. Criminal Law & Criminol. 30 874 Predispositional tendencies must not be ignored for they may cause crime regardless of the environmental situation.
1996 A. Raine & M. S. Buchsbaum in D. M. Stoff & R. B. Cairns Aggression & Violence x. 210 A number of brain deficits have been postulated as potential predispositional factors to violence.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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