lumbago

See also: Lumbago and lumbágó

English

WOTD – 28 January 2021

An illustration of a person experiencing lumbago.

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Late Latin lumbāgō (“backache of the lumbar region”), from Late Latin lumbus (“lumbar”), Latin lumbus (“loin”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“loins”)) + -āgō (suffix forming nouns describing objects, animals, and plants).

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lʌmˈbeɪɡəʊ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌlʌmˈbeɪˌɡoʊ/, /ˌləm-/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪɡəʊ
• Hyphenation: lum‧ba‧go

Noun

lumbago (countable and uncountable, plural lumbagos) (pathology, also attributively)

1. (uncountable) Backache of the lumbar region or lower back, which can be caused by muscle strain or a slipped disc.

   Synonyms: low back pain, (abbreviation) LBP

   • 1935, Francis Beeding [pseudonym; John Palmer], chapter VII, in The Norwich Victims, London: Arcturus Publishing, published 2013, →ISBN, →OL, section 2:

     Sir Oswald Feiling winced as he turned to go home. He had felt a warning twinge of lumbago.

   • 1953, Gilbert Ryle, “Dilemma VII: Perception”, in Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, published 1954 (1987 printing), →ISBN, page 105:

     We may imagine an athletics coach with a scientific training researching into the physiology and the psychology of runners. [...] He finds out the effects of fatigue, of alcohol, of tobacco, of lumbago and of depression upon their performances.

2. (countable) An episode of such backache.

Related terms

• lumbaginous

Translations

backache of the lumbar region

• Arabic: أَلَمْ قَطَنِيّ (ʔalam qaṭaniyy), أَلَمْ اَلْقَطَنْ (ʔalam al-qaṭan)
• Basque: lunbagoa, lunbalgia
• Bulgarian: лумбаго (lumbago), болка в кръста (bolka v krǎsta)
• Catalan: lumbago (ca), dolor lumbar m or f, lumbàlgia
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 下背痛 (xiàbèitòng), 腰痛 (zh) (yāotòng)

• Czech: bederní ústřel m, houser (cs) m
• Dutch: lumbago (nl), spit (nl) n, verschot (nl) n
• Esperanto: lumbalgio
• Finnish: noidannuoli (fi)
• French: lumbago (fr) m, lombalgie (fr) f, tour de reins (fr) m
• Georgian: ჭვალი (č̣vali)
• German: Lumbago n, Hexenschuss (de) m, Lumbalgie f
• Greek: οσφυαλγία (el) f (osfyalgía)

  Ancient Greek: ὀσφυαλγία f (osphualgía)

• Hebrew: מתנת
• Hungarian: lumbágó (hu), derékzsába (hu)
• Icelandic: þursabit n, lendagigt f
• Ido: lumbago (io)
• Indonesian: nyeri punggung
• Irish: lumbágó
• Italian: lombaggine f, lombalgia (it) f, lumbalgia f
• Japanese: 腰痛 (ja) (ようつう, yōtsū)
• Korean: 요통 (yotong)
• Kyrgyz: люмбаго (lyumbago)
• Macedonian: лумбаго (lumbago)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lumbago

• Polish: lumbago (pl) n, postrzał (pl) m, heksenszus m
• Portuguese: lumbago (pt) m, lombalgia (pt) f
• Romanian: lumbago (ro) n, dorsalgia joasă, durerea lombară
• Russian: люмба́го (ru) n (ljumbágo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: крижо̀боља f

  Latin: križòbolja (sh) f

• Slovene: lumbago, bolečina v križu f
• Spanish: lumbago m, lumbalgia f
• Swedish: ryggskott n
• Tajik: люмбаго (lyumbago)
• Tamil: இடுப்புவலி (ta) (iṭuppuvali)
• Thai: ปวดหลังส่วนล่าง
• Ukrainian: люмбаго (ljumbaho)
• Uzbek: belangi (uz)
• Vietnamese: đau lưng dưới, y chứng đau lưng
• Walloon: clipe (wa)

See also

• Thesaurus:pain

Verb

lumbago (third-person singular simple present lumbagos, present participle lumbagoing, simple past and past participle lumbagoed)

1. (transitive) To affect (someone) with lumbago.

Translations

to affect (someone) with lumbago

• Spanish: dar lumbago a alguien

Further reading

• low back pain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin lumbāgō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Central) [lumˈba.ɣu]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia, Northwestern) [lumˈba.ɣo]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

lumbago m (plural lumbagos)

1. (pathology) lumbago (pain in the lower back)

Further reading

• “lumbago”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026

French

Alternative forms

• lombago

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin lumbāgō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lœ̃.ba.ɡo/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

Noun

lumbago m (plural lumbagos)

1. (pathology) lumbago (pain in the lower back)
   • 1946, Yves Gandon, Le métier d'homme:

     Firmin souffrait d'un lumbago; il ne pouvait plus «mouveter», le pauvre !

     Firmin had lumbago; he could no longer move a muscle, poor man!

Further reading

• “lumbago”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lumbāgō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lumˈba.ɡɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɡɔ
• Syllabification: lum‧ba‧go

Noun

lumbago n (indeclinable)

1. (pathology) low back pain, lumbago

   Synonyms: heksenszus, postrzał

Further reading

• “lumbago”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[1] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “lumbago”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[2] (in Polish)

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /lũˈba.ɡu/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /lũˈba.ɡu/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /lũˈba.ɡo/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /lũˈba.ɡu/ [lũˈba.ɣu]

• Hyphenation: lum‧ba‧go

Noun

lumbago m (plural lumbagos)

1. (pathology) lumbago (pain in the lower back)

Further reading

• “lumbago”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “lumbago”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French lumbago, from Latin lumbago.

Noun

lumbago n (uncountable)

1. lumbago

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	lumbago	lumbagoul
genitive-dative	lumbago	lumbagoului
vocative	lumbagoule

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin lumbāgō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lumˈbaɡo/ [lũmˈba.ɣ̞o]
• Rhymes: -aɡo
• Syllabification: lum‧ba‧go

Noun

lumbago m (plural lumbagos)

1. (pathology) lumbago

   Synonym: lumbalgia

Further reading

• “lumbago”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025