Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Diarrhea
/ˌdaɪəˈriːə/noun
Frequent loose or watery bowel movements.
The Greek roots
διά
diá
through
ῥεῖν
rheîn
to flow
Literally: “a flowing through”
The story of the word
Hippocratic writers used diárroia for precisely what it says: matter running straight through. The second half is the verb behind rheum, rheumatism and catarrh, all named for fluids thought to run where they should not. The spelling splits by ocean, diarrhea in America and diarrhoea in Britain, and both keep the doubled r that carries the Greek rho.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
catarrhrheumhemorrhage
In a sentence
Half the camp had diarrhea by the third day, and the well was the obvious suspect.