Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Enuresis
/ˌɛnjʊˈriːsɪs/noun
Involuntary passing of urine, especially bed-wetting in a child old enough to have stopped.
The Greek roots
ἐν
en
in
οὖρον
oûron
urine
Literally: “urinating in”
The story of the word
The clinical word exists mostly to give the condition a neutral name, and the definition hangs on age rather than on the act. Nocturnal enuresis is normal under five and treated as a matter for reassurance rather than intervention well beyond it. Its counterpart encopresis was built on the same pattern with a different noun.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
diureticureaurologyencopresis
In a sentence
The clinic treats nocturnal enuresis with an alarm before it tries anything else.