diarrhea
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English diaria, from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée),[1] from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια (diárrhoia, “through-flowing”), from διά (diá, “through”) + ῥέω (rhéō, “flow”). By surface analysis, dia- + -rrhea. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots.
Displaced native Old English ūtsiht (literally “straining out”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]diarrhea (countable and uncountable, plural diarrheas) (American spelling, Canadian spelling)
- (medicine) A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements.
- The watery or very soft excrement that comes from such bowel movements.
- 2008, Danna Korn and Connie Sarros, Gluten-Free Cooking for Dummies, Chapter 1:
- My Pampers bill is higher than your paycheck, my hands are raw from washing them every six minutes, and I do eight loads of laundry a day because everything we own is covered in diarrhea, and you want me to "plug him up" and wait another three weeks?
- 2009, Daniel Everett, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes[1], page 47:
- I looked and saw that she and her hammock were covered in diarrhea.
- 2014, L. A. Knight, Dog Training the American Male, page 221:
- Why was she covered in diarrhea?
- 2008, Danna Korn and Connie Sarros, Gluten-Free Cooking for Dummies, Chapter 1:
Usage notes
[edit]- Diarrhea is the American spelling; diarrhoea is the British spelling.
Synonyms
[edit]- (medical condition): the runs, the shits, the squirts (US), the trots, the squits (both UK), the skitters (Scottish and Northern English) (all slang)
- See also Thesaurus:diarrhea, bubble guts
Hyponyms
[edit]- Montezuma's revenge (informal)
- Pharaoh's revenge (informal)
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]- galactorrhea/galactorrhoea
- gonorrhea/gonorrhoea
- logorrhea/logorrhoea
- pyorrhea/pyorrhoea
- rheology
- diarrheal
- diarrheic
- antidiarrheal
Translations
[edit]medical condition
|
watery excrement
|
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ “dīarīa, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved June 5, 2022.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *srew-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms prefixed with dia-
- English terms suffixed with -rrhea
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/iːə
- Rhymes:English/iːə/4 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English forms
- Canadian English forms
- en:Medical signs and symptoms
- English terms with quotations
- en:Feces
- en:Diseases