allopathy

English

Borrowed from German Allopathie, allo- +‎ -pathy, originally a pejorative term.[1]

allopathy (countable and uncountable, plural allopathies)

(uncountable, originally) A system of alternative medicine that treats symptoms with substances that produce the opposite effect.
(countable) A conventional Western medical method or treatment.

Originally, this indicated solely treatment according to the "law of opposites" rather than the homeopathic "law of similars"; it is now principally used to distinguish conventional medicine from homeopathy (USA, UK, EU), especially in the literature of homeopathy.
In the United States, the term is sometimes used to distinguish MDs from DOs (osteopathic physicians), usually in discussions of medical education.
In India, used principally to distinguish "Western medicine" from Ayurveda, especially when comparing treatments and drugs.

historical: alternative medicine

traditional medical method or treatment

James C. Whorton (2004) Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195171624, page 18:
One form of verbal warfare used in retaliation by irregulars was the word “allopathy.” Coined two hundred years ago by Samuel Hahnemann […] and was intended, among other things, to indicate that regular doctors used methods that were unrelated to the disharmony produced by disease and thus were harmful to their patients.

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