Emete

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To bring up the contents of the stomach through the mouth as an act of expulsion ; to vomit or disgorge ingested material involuntarily or voluntarily ; the action of ejecting matter from the stomach in a forceful manner
2. The process of forcefully emptying the stomach's contents through the oral cavity ; to expel vomitus either reflexively or by choice ; the act of ejecting digestible substances as a protective or reactive measure
3. To discharge stomach contents by means of contraction and reversal of digestion ; to throw up or regurgitate swallowed substances ; the physical act of ejecting material from the digestive tract through the mouth

Etymology: The verb "emete" is rare and now archaic, but it belongs to a family of words built on the Greek "emein," meaning "to vomit." Greek physicians used the root for the act itself, and the noun "emesis" for vomiting survives in English from that tradition. The Latin form "emetus," and the medical adjective it fed into, carried the same sense of expelling the stomach's contents. English kept the root mainly in technical terms. "Emetic," a substance that induces vomiting, comes from the Greek adjective "emetikos" and entered English in the 17th century, when physicians were writing in Latin and Greek. The verb itself is a likely English adaptation of that same stem, used for the forceful expulsion of the stomach's contents. Its surviving use is mostly in medical and scientific writing, where it still names the reflex or deliberate act precisely.

Synonyms: vomit, regurgitate, retch