catarrh

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English catarre,^[2][3][4] which the Middle English Dictionary, Barnhart and Etymonline take as borrowed from Medieval Latin catarrus,^[2][3][5] while the OED, Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and Klein derive the modern word from French catarrhe,^[6][7][8][9] spelled caterre in the 15th century and catarre in the 16th.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged leaves the choice open between Middle French and Late Latin.^[10] Both forms go back to Late Latin catarrhus,^{[3][5][10][11]} from Ancient Greek κατάρρους (katárrhous, “a catarrh, a head cold”), literally "a flowing down",^[5][3][9] earlier κατάρροος (katárrhoos),^[3][9] from καταρρέω (katarrhéō, “to flow down”),^[6][9][10] from κατά (katá, “down”) and ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”),^[9][11][5] from Proto-Indo-European *sreu- (“to flow”).^[5][4] Compare Spanish catarro and Italian catarro.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A disease with inflammation and discharge in the head and throat: before 1398, in the Latin form catarrus, in Trevisa's "suche a rennynge reume hatte catarrus".^[2] Etymonline likewise dates the word to the late 14th century.^[5] The English form catarre is recorded probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[3] but the OED, whose entry is not fully revised, has its first record only about 1540, in Bellenden's translation of Boece.^[6] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English likewise date it to the early 16th century.^[8][12]

Semantic evolution

The name keeps an old idea of the disease: the discharge from the nose and eyes was supposed to run down from the brain.^[6] For a time the word was also used of an effusion of blood in the brain, or apoplexy, from 1554 to 1721.^[6][8] The use for inflammation of a mucous membrane appeared in 1588,^[6][13] and it outlived the older sense of a mere running at the nose, last recorded in 1794.^[6] Johnson (1755) still explained it, after Quincy, as a flow of "a sharp serum" from the glands about the head and throat, and quoted Milton's "fierce catarrhs".^[14] C. Lamb used it as a verb, in a letter of 1822.^[6] In everyday use it can mean a common cold, though not as a technical term.^[10][15]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a disease with discharge from the membranes of the head and throat, in the Latin form catarrus.^[2] The English form catarre follows, probably before 1425.^[3]
• c. 1540 – the discharge from the nose and eyes that comes with a cold (obsolete by 1794).^[6]
• 1554 – cerebral effusion, apoplexy (obsolete by 1721).^[6][8]
• 1588 – inflammation of a mucous membrane, or the excess mucus it produces.^[6][13]
• 1822 – verb, to remove or take by catarrh.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially of the nose and throat, with a heavy flow of mucus: A damp winter left him with chronic catarrh.^[16][10][6]
2. The mucus so produced.^[16][4]
3. A common cold, or a cold in the head; not a technical use.^[10][15]
4. (obsolete, 1554–1721) Apoplexy, or an effusion of blood in the brain.^[6][8]

Word family

• catarrhal
• catarrhally
• catarrhal fever

Related words

• rheum
• rheumatism
• stream
• cataract

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins