diarrhea

English

Alternative forms

• diarrhoea (British)
• diarrhœa (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English diaria, from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée), from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια (diárrhoia, “through-flowing”), from διά (diá, “through”) + ῥέω (rhéō, “flow”). By surface analysis, 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^[1], page 47:

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

   • 2014, L. A. Knight, Dog Training the American Male, page 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 (ʔishāl)

  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) (udramoẏ)
• 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)
• Haitian Creole: vant mennen
• 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 (ış ötu), сатқақ (satqaq)
• Khmer: អាមាតិសារ (km) (ʼaamaatesaa)
• Korean: 설사(泄瀉) (ko) (seolsa)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: زگ چوون (zig çûn)

  Northern Kurdish: zikçûn (ku), îshal (ku)

• Kyrgyz: ич өтүү (ky) (ic ötüü)
• Ladino: shushulera, kagalera, 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) (atisāraṁ), വയറിളക്കം (vayaṟiḷakkaṁ)
• 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 (šekam-raveš)
• 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

• Silian: cacareḍḍu m, diarrìa (scn) f, sciota f
• 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
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

watery excrement

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 稀屎 (zh) (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)
• Ingrian: paska
• 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: cacareḍḍu, sciota f, moja f
• Walloon: schite (wa) f
• Welsh: pib m
• Zulu: Uhudo f

See also

• constipation
• piss out one's ass