a. [f. Gr. αἰτιολογικ-ός inquiring into causes (see ÆTIOLOGY) + -AL.] Of or pertaining to ætiology; assigning or tending to assign a cause or reason.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp. Ætiological, something that assigns the cause of an effect or appearance.
1837. Whewell, Induct. Sc., III. XVIII. 481. The sciences which treat of causes have sometimes been termed ætiological.
1869. Huxley, in Sci. Opin., 28 April, 486/2. It will be ætiological speculation, if it attempts to deduce the history of the world, as a whole, from the known properties of the matter of the earth in the conditions in which the earth has been placed.
