rheum

See also: Rheum

English

WOTD – 22 February 2012

Etymology

From Middle English reume, rewme, from Anglo-Norman reume, from Late Latin rheuma, from Ancient Greek ῥεῦμα (rheûma, “stream, humour”). Doublet of stream.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɹuːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophone: room (most accents)
• Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

rheum (countable and uncountable, plural rheums)

1. (uncountable) Thin or watery discharge of mucus or serum, especially from the eyes or nose, formerly thought to cause disease. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 166:

     You that did voide your rume vpon my beard, / And foote me as you ſpurne a ſtranger curre / Ouer your threſhold, […]

   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 10:

     [T]thronging theaters of people (as well Aliens as Engliſhmen) hiued thither about the ſelling of fiſh and Herring, from Saint Michael to Saint Martin, and there built ſutlers booths and tabernacles, to canopie their heads in from the rhewme of the heauens, or the clouds diſſoluing Cataracts.

   • 1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 123:

     He wore about his shoulders a heavy cloak; his pale face was drawn and his voice broken with rheum.

2. Illness or disease thought to be caused by such secretions; a catarrh, a cold; rheumatism. [from 14th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of the Recompences or Rewards of Honour”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 227:

     And not as ſome yeeres ſince, I ſaw a Deane of S. Hillarie of Poictiers, reduced by reaſon and the incommoditie of his melancholy to ſuch a continuall ſolitarineſſe, that when I entered into his chamber he had never remooved one ſteppe out of it in twoo and twenty yeares before: yet had all his faculties free and eaſie, onely a rheume excepted that fell into his ſtomake.

3. (poetic) Tears. [from 16th c.]
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 27, column 2:

     Rich. And ſay, what ſtore of parting tears were ſhed? / Aum. Faith none for me: except the Northeaſt wind / Which then grew bitterly againſt our face, / Awak’d the ſleepie rhewme, and ſo by chance / Did grace our hollow parting with a teare.

4. (informal) Rheumatologist.
   • 2025 July 11, "bookwbng5" (username), [2025 July 11, "bookwbng5" (username), comment on "Bad first rheumatologist experience" on r/rheumatoid, on Reddit: comment] on "Bad first rheumatologist experience" on r/rheumatoid, on Reddit:

     […] the other rheumatologist in the practice I saw after that first meeting was irritated because my history was completely wrong. Not [irritated] at me, [but] the other rheum. […] I had to switch rheums at one point due to insurance problems. […] Thank god my good rheum’s office sorted out the insurance.

Hyponyms

• (dried rheum around eyes): crusty (slang), gound (UK dialectal), sleep, sleepy dust (informal)

Derived terms

• rheumatic
• rheumatism
• rheumic
• rheumy
• salt rheum

Translations

nose discharge

• Assamese: শেঙুন (xeṅun)
• Bulgarian: секреция (bg) f (sekrecija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 眵 (zh) (chī)

• Finnish: räkä (fi) (from nose), kuola (fi) (from mouth)
• French: chassie (fr) f, morve (fr) f
• Galician: reuma (gl) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: takony (hu)
• Indonesian: selesma (id)
• Irish: réama m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 점막 분비물 (jeommak bunbimul)
• Macedonian: слуз m (sluz)
• Malay: selesma
• Ottoman Turkish: نزله (nezle)
• Polish: katar (pl) m
• Portuguese: remela (pt) f
• Romanian: urdoare (ro)
• Russian: носова́я слизь f (nosovája slizʹ), слизь (ru) f (slizʹ)
• Spanish: mucosidad (es) f, moco (es) m
• Tamil: சளி (ta) (caḷi)

eye discharge — see also sleep

• Arabic: غَمَص m (ḡamaṣ) (semiliquid), رَمَص m (ramaṣ) (solid)

  Egyptian Arabic: عماص m (ʕumaaṣ, ʕemaaṣ)

• Armenian: ճպուռ (hy) (čpuṙ)
• Bulgarian: гурел (bg) (gurel)
• Czech: ospalek m
• Finnish: rähmä (fi)
• Greek: τσίμπλα (el) f (tsímpla)

  Ancient: λήμη f (lḗmē)

• Hungarian: csipa (hu)
• Ingrian: räämy, sitta
• Italian: cispa (it) f
• Japanese: 目脂 (ja) (めやに, meyani)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ڕیپۆق (rîpoq)

• Latin: grāmiae f pl
• Macedonian: гурелка f pl (gurelka)
• Magahi: 𑂍𑂰𑂀𑂒𑂲 (kā̃cī)
• Malay: tahi mata
• Maori: pīkari
• Ottoman Turkish: چاپاق (çapak)
• Punjabi: ਗਿੱਡ f (giḍḍa)
• Romagnol: càcar m, càcula f
• Spanish: lagaña (es) f, legaña (es) f, pitarra (es) f, pitaña (es) f, chele (es) m, magaña f, chinguiña (es) f (Mexico)
• Tahitian: vare
• Tamil: பீளை (ta) (pīḷai), பூளை (ta) (pūḷai)
• Telugu: బూజ (būja)
• Welsh: môl

illness

• Bulgarian: хрема f (hrema)
• Finnish: flunssa (fi) (cold), katarri (fi) (catarrh), reumatismi (fi) (rheumatism)
• Hungarian: nátha (hu), hurut (hu), csúz (hu), reuma (hu)
• Indonesian: pilek (id)
• Macedonian: хре́ма f (hréma)
• Malay: pilek (ms)
• Tamil: சளி (ta) (caḷi)

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ῥῆον (rhêon).

Noun

rheum

1. rhubarb

Descendants

• → Translingual: Rheum