Hydragogues

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A substance that promotes the discharge of water from the body, particularly through increased urination or sweating
2. An agent used in medical treatments to reduce excess fluid retention
3. A term often associated with diuretics or those that encourage fluid elimination from tissues

Etymology: "Hydragogues" is the plural of "hydragogue," a noun for substances that drive water out of the body. The word is built from Greek roots: "hydr-" meaning water and "agōgos," from "agein," to lead or drive. Together the Greek "hudragōgos" meant something like "conveying off water," and Latin borrowed it as "hydragogus" with the same sense. The Greek compound is transparent in a way many medical terms are not. Its second element also appears in words like "demagogue," which originally meant a leader of the people, so the same root that once described leading a crowd here describes steering water out of the body. The English form was taken from Latin, and the French "hydragogue" shows the same path into the language.