Dropsical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Being a condition marked by the swelling of bodily tissues from fluid retention indicates a pathological state
2. Referring to an abnormality manifested as swollen areas in the body due to the accumulation of excessive fluids denotes an austere health issue
3. Characterized by swelling in bodily tissues caused by an excess of fluid, this condition underscores serious medical concerns

Etymology: Dropsical is a plain formation: it is the adjective "dropsy" with the suffix "-ical" added, and the suffix is the same one found in words like "musical" or "medical". The noun it grows from has a longer and more interesting ancestry. Its Greek source, "hydrops", was built from "hydor", meaning water, and it named the condition that we now see as fluid building up in the body, the swelling that the adjective describes. The noun passed into Latin as "hydrops" and then into Old French as "ydropisie", and English borrowed it in Middle English as "idropesie". Over the centuries the spelling settled into "dropsy", a form that looks like an ordinary English word, even though it preserves the Greek idea of water. The "-ical" ending was attached in English, so "dropsical" describes anything connected with that condition, and it has been used in medical writing as a plain descriptive term.

Synonyms: edematous, swollen, bloated

Antonyms: normal, healthy, unaffected