bulimy
(ˈbjuːlɪmɪ)
Forms: 7 boulimie, 7–8 boulimy, (8 boulomee, 9 bullimy), 7– bulimy. See also etymology.
[ad. Gr. βουλῑµία, f. βου- intensive prefix (properly combining form of βοῦς ox) + λῑµός hunger; sometimes adopted as boulimia. The synonymous Gr. βουλῑµός was adopted in med.L. in the incorrect form bolismus, whence OF. bolisme, both used by Trevisa; and in 17th c. appears as boulime and as boulimos. The mod.Lat. form bulimia is now generally used in medical works, though bulimus also occurs.]
1. Med. ‘A morbid hunger, chiefly occurring in idiots and maniacs..the so-called canine hunger’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.). spec. (more fully bulimia nervosa), an emotional disorder (occurring chiefly in young women) in which ‘binges’ of extreme overeating alternate with depression and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting, and there is a persistent over-concern with body shape and weight.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. de. P.R. vii. xlv. (1495) 258 Bolismus is inmoderate and vnmesurable as it were an houndes appetyte. Ibid. xviii. xxvii. 786 Houndes haue contynuall Bolisme, that is inmoderat appetyte. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas (1608) 210 One while the boulime, then the anorexie..rage with monstrous ryot. 1651 Fuller Abel Rediv. (1867) I. 222 He fell into a most devouring and unsatiable bulimy. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 365 The boulimos and dog like appetite. 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 301 A strange Boulimy..seized one Brian Careswell..who would knaw and eat both Linnen and Woollen. 1720 W. Gibson Dispens. vi. iii. (1734) 155 Continuing too long in them..may cause a Bulimy or Dog-appetite. 1751 R. Brooke Gen. Practice Physic (ed. 3) II. 193 A Bulimus is a Disease..wherein the Patient is affected with an insatiable and perpetual Desire of Eating. 1780 Beckford Biog. Mem. Painters 19 Hemmeline, who had long been troubled with a boulomee, or voracious appetite. 1880 Beale Slight Ailm. 74 Boulimia..may be due to a very irritable state of the nerves of the stomach. 1976 Sci. Amer. Apr. 80/3 After about two years a second phase [of anorexia], called bulimia, usually develops, in which the victim alternately fasts and gorges herself. 1978 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 23 June 2688 Self-induced vomiting has been associated with the psychiatric diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and a newly proposed disorder named bulimia. 1979 Psychol. Med. IX. 429 (heading) Bulimia nervosa: an ominous variant of anorexia nervosa. 1982 [see bulimarexic a.]. 1983 Oxf. Textbk. Med. I. viii. 54 A minority of patients with anorexia nervosa do not recover but enter a chronic phase of the illness with altered clinical picture. This is called bulimia nervosa because one of its main features is the recurrence of gross overeating. 1985 Woman's Own 22 June 10/2 She developed another slimmer's disease—bulimia nervosa. ‘For four months I stuffed myself with food then purged myself with laxatives.’ |
2. fig.
| 1654 Fuller Comm. Ruth (1868) 135 The boulimie of all-consuming Time. 1696 Monthly Mercury VII. 83 The French King has had..such a Bulimy after Money. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-Cr. ii. iv. 44 There is enough left to glut..any that has not..an Ecclesiastick Boulimy. 1833 Hood Wks. (1862) II. 440 Novel reading is to some constitutions a sort of literary bullimy, or unnatural appetite. 1834 Southey Doctor xvii, First cousins of the moth who labour under a bulimy for black-letter. 1853 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith 144 One incessant bulimia for idolatry. |