rheum

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reume, also rume and reame,^[2] borrowed from Old French reume (now French rhume),^[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Late Latin rheuma.^[6][3][2] The Anglo-Norman reume is recorded from the early 13th century, for a swell of the sea as well as for mucus and a head cold.^[7] Latin had the word for a flood or tide from the 4th century and for catarrh from the 5th.^[6] It comes from Ancient Greek ῥεῦμα (rheûma, “stream, current; bodily humour, discharge”),^[6][3][4] formed on the base of ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”),^[6][8][5] from Proto-Indo-European *sreu- (“to flow”).^[3][9] Compare Spanish reuma and Italian reuma.^[6] The spelling with the letter h, restored in early Modern English, is first recorded in 1591.^[8][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Watery or mucous matter, especially from the eyes, nose or mouth, and also a disease put down to its flow, such as a cold: both before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[6][2] Barnhart finds the form reame about 1373 and reume about 1378.^[8][11] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to medicine: the fluid was thought to drain from the higher parts of the body to the lower and to cause disease when out of balance,^[3][2] and the OED notes the belief that it arose in the brain or head.^[6] The sense of illness is now rare or historical.^[6] From the middle of the 16th century the word could also mean moisture in the air, such as dew or mist, a use that became rare after that century and had died out by 1866.^[6] John Lyly used it figuratively in 1591 for a slowly gathering source of harm.^[6] Shakespeare's Richard II (1597) has it for tears, which became a poetic use.^[6][12] Johnson (1755) defined it as a thin watery matter oozing through the glands, chiefly about the mouth, and quoted Shakespeare.^[13] Weekley notes that rheumatism was formerly supposed to be caused by a downward flow of rheum.^[10] The noun is now chiefly archaic.^[12][5] In Yorkshire dialect it meant a cold in the head, and in the West Riding also fluid in a swollen joint.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1398 – watery or mucous secretions; a cold or catarrh.^[6][2]
• c. 1425 – verb, to flow as rheum (a single record).^[6]
• c. 1553 – moisture in the air (obsolete by 1866).^[6]
• 1591 – figurative, a gradually building source of harm; the spelling rheum.^[6][8]
• 1597 – tears, in Shakespeare's Richard II.^[6]
• 1602 – verb, to discharge rheum (last record 1839).^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A watery discharge from the mucous membranes, especially of the eyes or nose: The old dog's eyes were crusted with rheum.^[15][16]
2. A condition marked by such a discharge, such as a cold or catarrh (now rare or historical).^[16][6]
3. (figurative) Something that slowly builds into a source of harm or evil influence.^[6][12]
4. (archaic) Tears.^[16][6][12]
5. (obsolete) In older medicine, a flow of unhealthy fluid or humour through the body.^[2][12]

Word family

• rheumy
• rheumic
• rheumatic
• rheumatism

Related words

• stream
• diarrhea
• rhubarb

Usage notes

The name of the rhubarb genus, Rheum, is pronounced /ˈriːəm/, recorded in English from 1753 and of separate origin: it is from New Latin Rheum, as used by Linnaeus in 1735, from Ancient Greek ῥῆον (rhēon, “rhubarb”).^[6][12][16]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster