Etymology

dysentery

D2Y4S1E1N1T1E1R1Y4

Today it means: A disease characterised by inflammation of the intestines, especially the colon (large intestine), accompanied by pus (white blood cells) in the feces, fever, pain in the abdomen, high-volume diarrhea, and possible blood in the feces. Full definition →

Middle English dissenterie ← Old French dissenterie ← Latin dysenteria
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromδυσεντερία
  2. Latin · derived fromdysenteria
  3. Old French · derived fromdissenterie
  4. Middle English · inherited fromdissenterie
  5. English todaydysentery

From Middle English dissenterie, from Old French dissenterie, from Latin dysenteria, from Ancient Greek δυσεντερία (dusentería), from δυσ- (dus-, “bad”) + ἔντερα (éntera, “bowels”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.