From: benlizro@ihug.co.nz   
      
   On 27/09/2025 2:46 a.m., guido wugi wrote:   
   > 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 It is obsolete or close to it, last relevant   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)   
   >   
      
   Might be, I guess. I'm not really the one to investigate it. Watkins   
   cites Pokorny's versions of the two roots as *ƙleu and *lou, with   
   different vocalisms, but I can't say whether that's significant.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)