dysentery

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dissenterie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French dissenterie,^[5][4][6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin dysenteria,^[8][7][9] from Ancient Greek δυσεντερία (dusentería),^[5][1] from δυσέντερος (dusénteros, “afflicted in the bowels”),^[5][9] formed from δυσ- (dus-, “bad, difficult”) and ἔντερα (éntera, “bowels”).^[5][1][10] According to Etymonline and Klein the Greek word was coined by Hippocrates.^[8][10] The Old French word is recorded in the 13th century as dissintere,^[5][8] and the Anglo-Norman dissinterie from the second quarter of the 13th century.^[11] The Latin word is found in Pliny.^[5] Etymonline traces the Greek noun to Proto-Indo-European *enter (“between, among”), a comparative of *en (“in”).^[8] Dictionary.com takes the modern form directly from Medieval Latin, replacing the Middle English one.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

An intestinal disease with pain and bloody evacuations: about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, where Acts 28:8 has "feueres, and dissenterie or flix".^[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English Dictionary records the spellings dissenterie, dissinterie, dissentarie and dicentorie, and pairs the word with flux, the native name of the disease.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a looseness in which ill humours pass off by stool, sometimes with blood.^[13] From 1816 the word was also used for a disease of bees.^[5][14] Modern definitions describe an infection of the intestine by bacteria or amoebae, with severe diarrhoea and the passage of mucus and blood.^[15][16][17]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – dissenterie, an intestinal disease with bloody flux, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5][2]
• 1816 – a disease of bees.^[5][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An infection of the lower intestine, caused by bacteria, amoebae or other parasites, with severe diarrhoea passing mucus and blood: The camp's water supply was blamed for the outbreak of dysentery.^[15][16][17]
2. A disease of bees.^[5][14]

Word family

• dysenteric
• amebic dysentery
• amoebic dysentery

Related words

• dys-
• enteric
• enteritis
• interior
• internal

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
17. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster