From: benlizro@ihug.co.nz   
      
   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 It is obsolete or close to it, last relevant citation   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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)