the.com/dropsy
Dropsy was an old term for swelling from fluid buildup, now called edema and treated as a symptom.
means An old medical term for swelling caused by fluid buildup in the body's tissues, now generally called edema and understood as a symptom rather than a disease itself.
from Dropsy traveled a long road through sound-shortening: it comes from Old French 'ydropisie', from Latin 'hydropisis', from Greek 'hydrops' — built on 'hydor', meaning water. The initial 'hy-' wore away over centuries of English mouths until only 'dropsy' was left, so the word for a waterlogged body quietly lost its own reference to water along the way.
- real meaning
- fluid buildup now called edema or congestive heart failure
- victorian diagnosis
- often a symptom mistaken for the disease itself
- word origin
- from hydrops, greek for water, via old french
- modern status
- retired term, kept alive by novels and crossword puzzles