diarrhea

diarrhea

English

Alternative forms

• diarrhoea (British)
• diarrhœa (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English dīarīa[1], from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée), from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια (diárrhoia, “through-flowing”), from διά (diá, “through”) + ῥέω (rhéō, “flow”) (English dia- + -rrhea). Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots.

Displaced native Old English ūtsiht (literally “straining out”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːə

Noun

diarrhea (countable and uncountable, plural diarrheas) (American spelling, Canadian spelling)

1. A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements.
2. The watery or very soft excrement that comes from such bowel movements.
   • 2008, Danna Korn and Connie Sarros, Gluten-Free Cooking for Dummies, Chapter 1:

     My Pampers bill is higher than your paycheck, my hands are raw from washing them every six minutes, and I do eight loads of laundry a day because everything we own is covered in diarrhea, and you want me to "plug him up" and wait another three weeks?

   • 2009, Daniel Everett, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes‎, page 47:

     I looked and saw that she and her hammock were covered in diarrhea.

   • 2014, L. A. Knight, Dog Training the American Male, 221:

     Why was she covered in diarrhea?

Usage notes

• Diarrhea is the American spelling; diarrhoea is the British spelling.

Synonyms

• (medical condition): the runs, the shits, the squirts (US), the trots, the squits (both UK), the skitters (Scottish and Northern English) (all slang)
• See also Thesaurus:diarrhea, bubble guts

Hyponyms

• Montezuma's revenge (informal)
• Pharaoh's revenge (informal)

Derived terms

• bovine viral diarrhea
• diarrhea of the mouth
• runner's diarrhea
• traveler's diarrhea
• travelers' diarrhea
• verbal diarrhea

 

Related terms

• galactorrhea/galactorrhoea
• gonorrhea/gonorrhoea
• logorrhea/logorrhoea
• pyorrhea/pyorrhoea
• rheology
• diarrheal
• diarrheic
• antidiarrheal

Translations

medical condition

Afrikaans: diarree (af) Albanian: purth m, bark (sq) m, diare f Arabic: إِسْهَال‎ (ar) m (ʾishāl) Egyptian Arabic: اسهال‎ m (is.hāl) South Levantine Arabic: إسهال‎ (ʔis.hāl) Armenian: լուծ (hy) (luc) Azerbaijani: ishal, diarreya Bashkir: эс китеү (es kitew) Belarusian: ля́кса f (ljáksa), мыт m (myt), пано́с m (panós), дрыста́чка f (drystáčka) (vulgar), сра́чка f (sráčka) (vulgar), дыярэ́я f (dyjaréja) Bengali: উদরাময় (bn) (udôramôyô) Bulgarian: диа́рия f (diárija) Burmese: ဝမ်းကျ (my) (wam:kya.) Catalan: cagarrines (ca) f pl, diarrea (ca) f Chinese: Cantonese: 肚屙 (tou5 o1) Mandarin: 腹瀉／腹泻 (zh) (fùxiè), 下痢 (zh) (xiàlì), (colloquial) 拉肚子 (zh) (lādùzi) Czech: průjem (cs) m, sračka (cs) f (vulgar), běhavka (cs) f (colloquial) Danish: diare c, diaré c, diarre (da) c, diarré (da) c Dutch: diarree (nl) Esperanto: lakso, diareo Estonian: kõhulahtisus Faroese: lívsýki n, búklop n, skitja f, skræpusótt f, myrra f, gorlop n Finnish: ripuli (fi) French: diarrhée (fr) f, foire (fr) f Galician: diarrea (gl) f, cagarría (gl) f, foira f, descomposición (gl) f Gallo: deripette f Georgian: დიარეა (diarea), კუჭაშლილობა (ḳuč̣ašliloba), ფაღარათი (paɣarati), ტრაწი (ṭrac̣i) German: Durchfall (de) m, (informal) Dünnschiss (de) m, Diarrhö (de) f, Diarrhoe (de) f Greek: διάρροια (el) (diárroia), ευκοιλιότητα (el) f (efkoiliótita) Ancient: διάρροια f (diárrhoia) Gujarati: અતિસાર (atisār) Hebrew: שִׁלְשׁוּל‎ (he) m (shilshúl) Hiligaynon: luput, bala-od Hindi: दस्त (hi) m (dast), अतिसार (hi) m (atisār) Hungarian: hasmenés (hu) Icelandic: niðurgangur (is) m, (informal) ræpa f, (informal) drulla f Ido: diareo (io) Indonesian: diare (id) Ingrian: syäntauti Irish: buinneach f, scaoing f (in animals), scuaid f Old Irish: búar, buinne, buinnech, díarria, lir Italian: diarrea (it) f Japanese: 下痢 (ja) (げり, geri) Jarai: čroh Kannada: ಅತಿಸಾರ (kn) (atisāra) Kazakh: тышқақ (tyşqaq), іш өту (kk) (ış ötu), сатқақ (satqaq) Khmer: អាមាតិសារ (km) (ʼaamaatesaa) Korean: 설사 (ko) (seolsa) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: زگ چوون‎ (zig çûn) Northern Kurdish: zikçûn (ku), îshal (ku) Kyrgyz: ич өтүү (ky) (iç ötüü) Ladino: kagadero, kaganera, shushunera, diarea, salida Lao: ຖອກທ້ອງ (thǭk thǭng) Latin: foria f, alvī prōfluvium Latvian: caureja f Lithuanian: viduriavimas m Macedonian: пролив m (proliv) Malay: cirit-birit (ms), diarea Malayalam: അതിസാരം (ml) (atisāraṃ), വയറിളക്കം (vayaṟiḷakkaṃ) Maltese: dijarea f Marathi: अतिसार (mr) m (atisār) Mongolian: суулгалт (suulgalt) Nahuatl: amintli Norman: diarrhée f Norwegian: diaré (no) m Old English: ūtsiht f Pashto: اسهال‎ (ps) m (eshãl), دست‎ (ps) m (dast), حيضه‎ f (hizā) Persian: اسهال‎ (fa) (eshâl), شکم‌روش‎ (šekamraveš) Polish: biegunka (pl) f, sraczka (pl) f (vulgar), rozwolnienie (pl) n Portuguese: diarreia (pt) f Punjabi: ਦਸਤ m (dasat) Romanian: diaree (ro), urdinare (ro) f Romansch: fuira f (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan), fuera f (Sursilvan), foira f (Surmiran), sfuira f (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan, Puter), sfuoira f (Vallader), diarrea f (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Surmiran, Puter, Vallader), diarea f (Sutsilvan), burga f (Sursilvan), purgia f (Surmiran), sfurata f (Sutsilvan), sbierla f (Surmiran) Russian: поно́с (ru) m (ponós), диаре́я (ru) f (diaréja), сра́чка (ru) f (sráčka) (vulgar) Scottish Gaelic: cac-shiubhal m, a' bhuineach f, spùt m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: дијареја f, пролив m, прољев m Roman: dijareja (sh) f, proliv (sh) m, proljev (sh) m Slovak: hnačka (sk) f, sračka f (vulgar) Slovene: driska (sl) f, (please verify) sráčka f (expressive) Spanish: diarrea (es) f, colitis (es), cagadera f, (El Salvador, Nicaragua) churria f, currutaca f, (Chile) churretera f Swahili: harisha Swedish: diarré (sv) Tagalog: bululos, pagtatae, talasok Tamil: வயிற்றுப்போக்கு (ta) (vayiṟṟuppōkku), பேதி (ta) (pēti) Tatar: эч китү (eç kitü) Telugu: అతిసారం (te) (atisāraṁ) Thai: ท้องเสีย (th) (tɔ́ɔng-sǐia), ท้องร่วง (th) (tɔ́ɔng-rûuang), ท้องเดิน (th) (tɔ́ɔng-dəən) Tibetan: བཤལ་ནད (bshal nad) Turkish: ishal (tr) Ukrainian: проно́с m (pronós), різа́чка (uk) f (rizáčka), бігу́нка (uk) f (bihúnka), сра́чка f (sráčka) (vulgar), діаре́я f (diaréja) Urdu: اسہال‎ m (ishāl), دست‎ (ur) m (dast) Uyghur: ئىچ سۈرۈش‎ (ich sürüsh) Uzbek: ich ketish, ichburugʻ (uz) Vietnamese: tiêu chảy, ỉa chảy (vi) Walloon: schite (wa) f Welsh: dolur rhydd (cy) m Westrobothnian: magafar n Zulu: please add this translation if you can

watery excrement

Chinese: Mandarin: 稀屎 (xīshǐ) Danish: tyndskid (informal) Finnish: ripuliuloste; ripulipaska (vulgar) French: chiasse (fr) f Galician: cisca f, cagarría (gl) f, furrica f, foira f Greek: διάρροια (el) f (diárroia) Ancient: διάρροια f (diárrhoia) Hungarian: fos (hu) (vulgar) Irish: scuaid f Italian: squacquera f, scacazzata (it) Polish: biegunka (pl) f, sraczka (pl) f (vulgar), rozwolnienie (pl) n Portuguese: diarreia (pt) f Russian: жидкий стул m (židkij stul) Sicilian: moja f Walloon: schite (wa) f Zulu: Uhudo f

See also

• constipation
• piss out one's ass

References

1. dīarīa in the Middle English Dictionary (June 5th, 2022)