Cathartagogue

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A substance that induces or stimulates bowel evacuation by increasing intestinal motility or promoting purging to relieve constipation
2. An agent used to provoke defecation by accelerating the passage of stool through the colon and cleansing the digestive tract
3. A compound that acts to encourage the emptying of the bowels, facilitating the removal of fecal matter through laxative effects

Etymology: Medicine that purges the body takes its name from two Greek elements, and the second is familiar from other English words. "Agogos" meant "leading" or "bringing," as in "demagogue," a leader of the people, and "pedagogue," from a word for the household slave who led boys to school. Joined to a root meaning "cleansing," it describes a remedy that leads something out of the body. The first element is "kathartikos," "cleansing," from the Greek verb "kathairein," to cleanse, which also gives English "catharsis." Both trace back to "katharos," meaning clean or pure. The compound is an English formation from Greek parts rather than a term that ancient physicians used, and its sense stays literal: the medicine drives waste out of the body.

Synonyms: laxative, purgative

Antonyms: constipating agent