From: wugi@brol.invalid   
      
   Op 26/09/2025 om 12:38 schreef Ross Clark:   
   > On 21/09/2025 6:39 p.m., Aidan Kehoe wrote:   
   >>   
   >> I came across this word today for the first time in a review of a   
   >> biography of   
   >> Niccolao Manucci (which is likely to bring up many questions relevant to   
   >> sci.lang, though less so alt.usage.english, if I read it).   
   >>   
   >> It’s a term for an enema, also spelled glyster, glister, from Greek   
   >> κλυστηρ (a   
   >> syringe used for this). It is obsolete or close to it, last relevant   
   >> citation   
   >> in OED2 1846, in veterinary use. Pronounced /ˈklɪstɚ/, to my mild   
   >> surprise.   
   >>   
   >> The word still exists in French, German, Spanish and Portuguese,   
   >> though it   
   >> doesn’t seem to be the default choice of word for an enema in any of   
   >> those   
   >> languages.   
   >>   
   >   
   > Watkins gives the PIE root as *kleuə- 'to wash, clean'.   
   > "Cataclysm" (originally a downpour) is another Greek derivative.   
   > The only other word from this root to turn up in English is "cloaca",   
   > from the Latin word for sewer.   
      
   German has lauter (> D. louter)   
      
   Any clue of a relationship with   
   *leuə-, like lather, lye, L. lavare, to wash? (lavabo comp. placebo, gazebo)   
      
   --   
   guido wugi   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)