hepatic, a. and n.
(hɪˈpætɪk)
Also 4–8 ep-.
[ad. L. hēpatic-us, a. Gr. ἡπατικός of or belonging to the liver.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the liver.
e.g. hepatic artery, hepatic ducts, hepatic plexus, hepatic vein; hepatic apoplexy, hepatic colic, hepatic disorder, hepatic disease, hepatic flux.
| 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 178/1 Phlebotomise..in his right Arme, the Hepaticke or Livervayn. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. iii. iv, Melancholy, which Laurentius subdivides into three parts..Hepatick, Splenatick, Meseriack. 1719 Quincy Phys. Dict., Hepatick Flux, is a bilious Looseness, occasioned by overflowing of Choler. 1742 Eames in Phil. Trans. XLII. 32 A Discharge of Bile..'tis but thin and diluted, and such as in other Animals is usually called Hepatic Bile. 1773 Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 604 His lordship's bilious and hepatic complaints. 1806 Med. Jrnl. XV. 577 The hepatic artery being very small, comparatively with the size of the liver. 1827 Abernethy Surg. Wks. I. 60 Hepatic disorder may disturb the sensorium. 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 479 The original filaments..follow the pyloric artery, to cast themselves into the hepatic plexus. 1866 Huxley Phys. v. (1872) 118 The hepatic duct, which conveys away the bile brought to it..from the liver. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 140 Hepatic colic..where a biliary calculus or gall stone passes down from the gall bladder into the intestine. |
† 2. Affected with liver complaint. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. viii. (Tollem. MS.), Licoure þat it is sodde inne helpeþ and socoureþ frenetik men, and epatik. |
3. Acting on the liver, good for the liver.
| 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii, Mountain-mint..is Pectoral and Hepatick. 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v. Tabella, We have cordial, stomachic..and hepatic tablets. |
4. Liver-coloured, dark brownish-red; as in hepatic aloes, hepatic tanager.
hepatic cinnabar, cinnabar mixed with idriolite, carbon, and earthy matter. hepatic pyrites, decomposed liverbrown tessular crystals of iron pyrites (Bristow Gloss. Min.).
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. xi. 361 With aloes tweyne vncis epatike. 1589 Cogan Haven Health (1636) 92 Take..of Aloes Epaticke, of white Sugar-Candie, of each the weight of two pence. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 388 Compact Brown Iron Stone or Hepatic Iron Ore. 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 21 The Cape aloes have a..more disagreeable odour than the Socotrine and Hepatic. |
5. Of or pertaining to a hepar; sulphurous. † hepatic air or hepatic gas, sulphuretted hydrogen.
| 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶165 This balsamick hepatick salt. 1786 Phil. Trans. LXXVI. 118 Hepatic Air is that species of permanently elastic fluid which is obtained from combinations of sulphur with various substances, as alkalies, earths, metals, etc. 1788 Ibid. LXXVIII. 384 If nitrous air be mixed with hepatic air volatile alkali will be formed. 1789 Ibid. LXXX. 67 Upon applying heat to the sulphur thus blackened, I have perceived an hepatic smell. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. xii. 500 Inflammable air possesses the property of dissolving sulphur, in which case it contracts a very fetid smell, and forms hepatic air. Ibid. 497 Hepatic gas. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 365 [It] exhales a hepatic odour capable of altering the splendor of silver. |
† 6. hepatic moss, a liverwort: see hepatica 2.
| 1824 Greville Flora Edin. Introd. 15 Hepaticæ, Liver⁓worts, Hepatic Mosses. Most of the plants of this order have a considerable affinity with the true mosses. |
B. n.
1. A medicine that acts on the liver and increases the secretion of bile.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans C v b, Yeue hir epatike with the flesh of a chycon. 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xv. 358 You must use cooling Hepaticks. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch. 419 The Bitters are Hepatics. 1886 in Syd. Soc. Lex. 1908 Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 671/2 An East Indian Aloes used to..be quoted in trade papers under the distinction of ‘Hepatic’. |
2. Bot. Usu. in pl. = hepatica.
| 1939 Nature 2 Sept. 416/2 The three smallest plants which have left recognizable fragments are a fungus and two liverworts or, as they are often called, hepatics, a group allied to the mosses but of simpler construction. 1964 V. J. Chapman Coastal Veget. vi. 152 It is here also that some hepatics..can be found. |