carminative

English

Etymology

From Latin carminō (“to card, hence to cleanse”), from carmen (“a card for freeing wool or flax from the coarser parts, and from extraneous matter”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈkɑː(ɹ)mɪnətɪv/

Adjective

carminative (comparative more carminative, superlative most carminative)

Relieving discomfort of gas in the digestive tract.
- 1635, James Guillimeau [i.e., Jacques Guillemeau], “Of Gripings and Fretting in the Belly, which Trouble Little Children”, in The Nvrsing of Children […] , London: Printed by Anne Griffin […] ; published in Child-birth, or, The Happy Delivery of VVomen […] , London: Printed by Anne Griffih […] , 1635, OCLC 222413128, page 52:
  If too much milke be the cauſe, then the Nurſe ſhall not give the childe ſucke ſo often, nor in ſuch plenty: If it proceed from wind, and that doe cauſe the childe to be thus troubled, it ſhall be diſcuſſed with Fomentations applied to the belly and navell; and with Carminative Cliſters, which ſhall bee given him, […]
- 1921, Aldous Huxley, chapter 20, in Crome Yellow‎, London: Chatto & Windus, page 220:
  They used to give me cinnamon when I had a cold—quite useless, but not disagreeable. […] On the label was a list of its virtues, and among other things it was described as being in the highest degree carminative. I adored the word.

Translations

relieving discomfort of gas

German: windtreibend
Hungarian: szélhajtó

Noun

carminative (plural carminatives)

(medicine) A drug or substance that induces the releasing of gas from the digestive tract.
- 1921, Aldous Huxley, chapter 20, in Crome Yellow‎, London: Chatto & Windus, page 226:
  “A mental carminative,” said Mr. Scogan reflectively. “That's what you need.”
- 1926, Hope Mirrlees, chapter 9, in Lud-in-the-Mist:
  But Master Nathaniel was indifferent to these manifestations of unpopularity. Let mental suffering be intense enough, and it becomes a sort of carminative.

Coordinate terms

diuretic
laxative

Translations

substance that induces the releasing of gas

Greek:
Ancient: ὀξυπόριον n (oxupórion)
Hungarian: szélhajtó

French

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /kaʁ.mi.na.tiv/
Homophone: carminatives

Adjective

carminative

feminine singular of carminatif

Italian

Adjective

carminative

feminine plural of carminativo