cathartic

English

Alternative forms

• cathartick (obsolete)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin catharticus, from Ancient Greek καθαρτικός (kathartikós).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tɪk

Adjective

cathartic (comparative more cathartic, superlative most cathartic)

1. Purgative; inducing mental or physical catharsis.

   Shaving, my favorite activity, is very cathartic.

2. That which releases emotional tension, especially after an overwhelming experience.
   • 2023 November 1, Ian Prosser talks to Stefanie Foster, “Safety Mission: Possible”, in RAIL, number 995, page 37:

     "So, there are real opportunities to create real change with enforcement." Prosser describes how some of that change is also cathartic to those who have been directly affected by incidents on the railway, such as the families who have lost loved ones.

Derived terms

• anacathartic
• anticathartic
• cathart
• cathartical
• cathartically
• cathartine
• emetocathartic
• hemocathartic
• uncathartic

 

Translations

purgative; inducing catharsis

• Bulgarian: разхлаби́телен (razhlabítelen)
• Dutch: louterend (nl), bevrijdend (nl)
• Finnish: katarttinen, vapauttava (fi)
• French: cathartique (fr)
• German: erlösend (de), kathartisch (de), abführend (de), (physisch/psychisch) reinigend
• Greek:

  Ancient: καθαρτικός (kathartikós)

• Hungarian: katartikus (hu)
• Indonesian: lega (id), melegakan (id)
• Italian: catartico (it)
• Portuguese: catártico
• Romanian: cathartic (ro)
• Russian: слаби́тельный (ru) (slabítelʹnyj)
• Swedish: förlösande (sv), renande (sv)

Noun

cathartic (plural cathartics)

1. (medicine) A laxative.
   • 1833, R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blnachard, page 165:

     The disease was regarded as pneumonia so far advanced that suppuration seemed to have supervened; bleeding, blisters, expectorants, and cathartics diminished the symptoms; the pulse continued frequent, hard, full, but always regular.

   • 2022, Seth Garfield, Guaraná […] , Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN:

     As Jan McTavish notes, when the physician diagnosed the headache's origins in the digestive system, particularly constipation, the antidote might entail cathartics (substances that accelerate defecation) or emetics(inducers of vomiting) and other regulators of the digestive process.

Translations

laxative — see also laxative

• Bulgarian: разхлаби́телно (bg) n (razhlabítelno)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 瀉藥 / 泻药 (zh) (xièyào), 瀉劑 / 泻剂 (zh) (xièjì)

• Finnish: laksatiivi (fi), ulostusaine, ulostuslääke (fi)
• French: cathartique (fr) m
• German: Abführmittel (de) n
• Hungarian: hashajtó (hu)
• Japanese: 下剤 (ja) (げざい, gezai), 下薬 (ja) (げやく, geyaku)
• Russian: слаби́тельное (ru) n (slabítelʹnoje)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French cathartique, from New Latin catharticus, from Ancient Greek καθαρτικός (kathartikós).

Adjective

cathartic m or n (feminine singular cathartică, masculine plural cathartici, feminine and neuter plural cathartice)

1. cathartic

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	cathartic		cathartică		cathartici	cathartice
	definite	catharticul		cathartica		catharticii	catharticele
genitive- dative	indefinite	cathartic		cathartice		cathartici	cathartice
	definite	catharticului		catharticei		catharticilor	catharticelor