-rrhea
AmericanUsage
What does -rrhea mean? The combining form -rrhea is used like a suffix meaning “flow” or "discharge." It is often used in medical terms, especially in pathology.The form -rrhea comes from the Greek rhoía, meaning “a flow" (like a stream). In Greek, the word rhoía helped form the Greek diárrhoia, literally “a flowing through,” source of the English diarrhea. Cha cha cha.What are variants of -rrhea?Variants of -rrhea include -rhea (spelled with a single r) and, chiefly in British English, -rrhoea and -rhoea (spelled with an o). The British English spelling of diarrhea is diarrhoea, for instance.
Etymology
Origin of -rrhea
From New Latin -rrhoea, from Greek -rrhoia, combining form representing rhoía “a flow,” akin to rheîn “to flow, stream”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We define logorrhea as excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness. Logorrhea was created in English in the late 1800s from the Greek words logos, meaning word, reason, speech and -rrhea, from the verb that means to flow,” Merriam Webster explained.
From Washington Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.