diarrhea

• diarrhoea (British)
• diarrhœa (archaic)

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”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːə

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?

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

• (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

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

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

• constipation
• piss out one's ass