defluxion

English

Etymology

From Latin defluxio.

Noun

defluxion (countable and uncountable, plural defluxions)

1. (obsolete) A flowing down; a running down.
2. (medicine) A discharge or flowing of fluid matter, as from the nose in catarrh.
   • 1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, [...] To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, [...], London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, →OCLC, page 254:

     […] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place corrupted, and a Cancer (or rather cacoethic Ulcer) was thereby made, with which great Difficulty was cur'd."

   • 1839, Robley Dunglison, Dunglison's American Medical Library, part 1, page 205:

     Chronic defluxion from the nose, with sense of stuffing and fulness, occasionally attends cerebral congestion.

Anagrams

• fluxioned