Etymology

bulimia

bu·li·mi·a
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Today it means: A chronic eating disorder characterized by a binge-and-purge cycle: extreme overeating followed by self-induced vomiting. Full definition →

Ancient Greek βουλῑμῐ́ᾱ (boulīmĭ́ā) ← Proto-Hellenic *gʷous ← Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷṓws
  2. Proto-Hellenic*gʷous
  3. Ancient Greekβοῦς (boûs)
  4. Ancient Greekλῑμός (līmós)
  5. Ancient Greekβούλῑμος (boúlīmos)
  6. Ancient Greekβουλῑμῐ́ᾱ (boulīmĭ́ā)
  7. English todaybulimia

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek βουλῑμῐ́ᾱ (boulīmĭ́ā, “ravenous hunger”), from βούλῑμος (boúlīmos) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekβουλῑμῐ́ᾱ all →

bulimia nervosa

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.