'non-pathological' originates from English, combining the prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non' meaning 'not') and 'pathological' (from Greek 'pathos' via Late Latin/French meaning 'suffering' or 'disease').

'pathological' developed from Greek 'pathos' → Late Latin 'pathologicus' → Middle English into modern English 'pathological'; the productive English prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non') has long been used to form negations, producing 'non-pathological' to mean 'not pathological'.

Initially, 'pathological' meant 'relating to disease or suffering'; by adding the negating prefix 'non-', the compound came to mean 'not related to disease'—a literal negation that has been used in medical and scientific contexts to distinguish normal or functional findings from disease.