‖ dyspepsia
(dɪˈspɛpsɪə)
[a. L. dyspepsia (Cato), a. Gr. δυσπεψία indigestion, f. δύσπεπτ-ος: see dyspeptic.]
Difficulty or derangement of digestion; indigestion: applied to various forms of disorder of the digestive organs, esp. the stomach, usually involving weakness, loss of appetite, and depression of spirits.
| [1657 Physical Dict., Duspepnia, ill concoction.] 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Dyspepsia, a Difficulty of Digestion, or Fermentation in the Stomach and Guts. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 569 Report of Diseases in the..Practice of one of the Physicians of the Finsbury Dispensary..Diarrhœa, 15; Dysenteria, 2; Dyspepsia, 10. 1842 A. Combe Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4) 263 Rapid eating almost invariably leads to overloading the stomach; and when to this is added a total disregard of the quietude necessary for digestion, what can be expected to follow but inveterate dyspepsia? 1854 C. Brontë Let. in Mrs. Gaskell Life 430 Headache and dyspepsia are my worst ailments. 1862 Lancet 13 Sept. 278 A French writer calls dyspepsia ‘the remorse of a guilty stomach’. |
| fig. 1865 Lowell Thoreau Pr. Wks. 1890 I. 362 Every possible form of intellectual and physical dyspepsia brought forth its gospel. 1885 Pall Mall G. 1 Jan. 3/2 The Christian life, in order to be healthy and strong, wanted exercise as well as feeding; too many were content to feed without serving, the consequence being spiritual dyspepsia. |
Hence
dysˈpepsia v. nonce-wd., to affect with dyspepsia.
| 1848 Q. Rev. Dec. (Hoppe), It gravels and dyspepsias him. 1849 F. B. Head Stokers & P. iii. (1851) 38 To lose sight of his luggage..dyspepsias him beyond description. |