Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “colic” come from?

Colic comes from French colique, from Latin colica, ultimately referring to pain in the colon.

colic (English): Severe pains that grip the abdomen or the disease...

Definitions

  1. Severe pains that grip the abdomen or the disease...

Ancestry of “colic”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchcoliquecolic; diarrhoea
2Ancient Greekκωλικόςsuffering in the colon
3Ancient Greek-ικόςof or pertaining to, in the manner of; -ic
4Ancient Greek-κόςforms adjectives with the sense of 'of or...
5Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic

Words derived from “colic”

  • colicky
  • ileocolic
  • gastrocolic
  • paracolic
  • pericolic
  • collywobbles
  • mesocolic
  • splenocolic
  • phrenicocolic
  • supramesocolic
  • inframesocolic
  • epicolic
  • vesicocolic
  • intracolic
  • colical
  • colicroot
  • paramesocolic
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →