The word, of Anglo-Saxon origin, is composed of: osteo = structure – function (bones, organs, arteries, etc.) and phaty = pathway, path (healing).
Osteopathy was born just over a century ago in the United States. Its founder was Dr. Andrew Taylor Still (1824-1914), who discovered osteopathy at the age of 46 based on an intuition he had at 10 years. As a child Dr. Still suffered from frequent headaches and one day, while he was playing in the garden, he could feel that one was about to come on. He lay down on the lawn, resting his head on the rope of the swing with the idea of being more comfortable. Suddenly the headache vanished which is how that child in the future adopted the swing method to fight his headache.