dropsy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dropesie, also dropsie,^[2][3][4] an aphetic form of idropesie or ydropesie,^[5][2][6] borrowed from Old French idropisie, also ydropesie,^[2][7][5] from Medieval Latin ydrōpisia,^[6][4] for Latin hydrōpisis,^[5][6][8] from Ancient Greek ὕδρωψ (húdrōps, “dropsy”),^[9][3][5] from ὕδωρ (húdōr, “water”),^[9][3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“water; wet”).^[8] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the first third of the 12th century.^[10] The OED notes that the short form is found from the word's first appearance in English, and that the first vowel may have partly merged with the article: “þe ydropesie”, “th' idropesie”, “the dropesie”.^[5] Barnhart explains that the Greek ending, originally a noun for "eye" or "face", in this word means little more than "having";^[7] Klein glosses the suffix literally as "-eyed".^[3] The English word hydropsy is a doublet.^[3][5] The slang sense "bribe" is explained separately: the Oxford Dictionary of English takes it as an elaborated form of slang drop "a bribe",^[11][12] and Green's Dictionary of Slang from the giver's dropping the money in a hand or pocket.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

An accumulation of watery fluid in the body: about 1290, in the South English Legendary.^[5] Barnhart has about 1250,^[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 13th century,^[2] and Etymonline the late 13th century.^[8] Weekley notes the Wycliffite Bible's ydropesie at Luke 14:2, with the later variant dropesie.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Gower used the fuller ydropesie for the disease or its sufferer,^[14] and Johnson (1755) described it as a collection of water in the body, derived from Latin hydrops by way of hydropisy.^[15] From 1548 to 1717 it was also used figuratively for an insatiable thirst or craving.^[5][16] From 1499 to 1678 it was an adjective as well, "dropsical".^[5][16] A disease of succulent plants took the name by 1846.^[5] The Concise Oxford now calls dropsy an old-fashioned or less technical term for edema, and Chambers says the condition is now usually called oedema.^[12][17] Green's records several joking uses from the idea of dropping: one who drops off to sleep, from 1836, in Dickens's Pickwick Papers; the habit of dropping things, from 1935.^[13] The slang meaning "money, a tip or bribe" comes from the 20th century: a banknote in Australia in 1927,^[13] money in the OED from 1930,^[5] a bribe in Green's from 1934.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – accumulation of watery fluid in the body.^[5]
• 1499 – adjective, dropsical (obsolete by 1678).^[5]
• 1548 – figuratively, an insatiable thirst or craving (obsolete by 1717).^[5]
• before 1825 – verb, to swell as with dropsy.^[5]
• 1836 – in slang, one who drops off to sleep.^[13]
• 1846 – a disease of succulent plants from too much water.^[5]
• 1927 – in slang, a banknote.^[13]
• 1930 – in slang, money, especially a tip or bribe.^[5]
• 1935 – in slang, the habit of dropping things.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. An abnormal build-up of watery fluid in the tissues or a cavity of the body; edema.^[18][2][5]
2. A disease of succulent plants caused by too much water.^[5]
3. (slang) A tip or bribe.^[18][5][16]
4. (slang) The habit of dropping things.^[13]
5. (obsolete, 1548–1717) An insatiable thirst or craving.^[5][16]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1499–1678) Dropsical.^[5][16]

Word family

• dropsical
• dropsically

Related words

• hydropsy
• hydrops
• hydro-
• water

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ 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
17. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins