rheum

See also: Rheum

English

WOTD – 22 February 2012

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹuːm/
• IPA^(key): /ɹum/
• Rhymes: -uːm
• Homophone: room

Noun

rheum (countable and uncountable, plural rheums)

1. (uncountable) Watery or thin discharge of serum or mucus, 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:

     Shy[lock]. 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]hronging 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.]
   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
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.

Hyponyms

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

Derived terms

• rheumatic
• rheumatism
• rheumy

Translations

nose discharge

• Armenian: ճպուռ (hy) (čpuṙ) (from eyes)
• Assamese: শেঙুন (xeṅun)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 眵 (zh) (chī)

• Finnish: räkä (fi) (from nose), kuola (fi) (from mouth)
• Galician: reuma f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: selesma (id)
• Irish: réama m
• Korean: 점막 분비물 (jeommak bunbimul)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Malay: selesma
• Polish: katar (pl) m
• Portuguese: remela (pt) f
• Romanian: urdoare (ro)
• Russian: выделения (ru) (vydelenija) (physiology), на́сморк (ru) m (násmork) (informal) со́пли (ru) f (sópli) (archaic) слёзы (ru) (sljózy)
• Spanish: legaña (es) f
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can

eye discharge — see also sleep

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

  Egyptian Arabic: عماص m (ʕumaaṣ, ʕemaaṣ)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: csipa (hu)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ڕیپۆق (rîpoq)

• Maori: pīkari

illness

• Finnish: flunssa (fi) (cold), katarri (fi) (catarrh), reumatismi (fi) (rheumatism)
• Indonesian: pilek (id)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Malay: pilek