Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Diuresis
/ˌdaɪjʊˈriːsɪs/noun
Increased production of urine, whether from disease, from a drug or from a very large drink.
The Greek roots
διά
diá
through
οὖρον
oûron
urine
Literally: “urinating through”
The story of the word
The adjective got here first: diuretic was in English medical writing by the late fourteenth century, while the abstract noun arrived much later. Greek doctors used diourētikós for anything that drove urine through, and the class still contains some of the oldest working drugs in the pharmacy, alongside coffee. Diabetes records the same observation from another angle, naming the body a siphon that passes water straight through.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → English
Same family
diureticurethraureaenuresis
In a sentence
Cold weather produces a mild diuresis, which is why hikers stop so often.