Dyspepsia

[Dr. Goodword]

• dyspepsia •

Pronunciation: dis-pep-si-ê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: 1. Indigestion, poor or bad digestion (antonym of eupepsia "good digestion"). 2. Weakness, loss of appetite, and mild depression attributable to a malfunction of the stomach or other digestive organs.

Notes: Today's word is just what you need if you prefer words borrowed from Greek, like dydpepsia, over those borrowed from Latin, like indigestion. The Greek correlate of the Latin prefix dis- is dys-, found in such words as dysentery, dyslexia, and the archaic but still useful dysnomy "bad legislation, lawlessness." The fairly common adjective for today's Good Word is dyspeptic. Most US soft drinks originally were touted as tonics, good for digestion, so what better name than Pepsi-Cola. Well, maybe Coca-cola, suggestive of the secret ingredient in its original recipe (shhhh—cocaine).

In Play: Bottom line: today's Good Word is a surrogate for indigestion: "Marlin, if you don't stop drinking so many Pepsi-Colas during the day you're going to get dyspepsia!" That should be obvious. Today's word also implies the discomfort of an upset stomach and the grumpiness that often accompanies it: "I think Mildred may have a touch of dyspepsia today; when Max offered her a chocolate, she chased him out of her office." She also could just be having a bad hair day.

Word History: English borrowed this word from Greek dyspepsia, which had the same meaning. The Greek word comprised dys- "un-, bad" + -pepsia "digestion". The root of pepsia goes back to Proto-Indo-European pekw- "to cook", so we see that the Greeks made the connection between food and body heat. This root is most obvious in Russian noun and verb pech', meaning either "an oven" or "to bake". We don't find this root in Germanic languages like English except in borrowings like peptic "related to digestion", as in peptic ulcer or eupeptic "promoting digestion, as eupeptic food, food easily digested. (Nothing prevents dyspepsia and promotes eupepsia better than an easily digestible Good Word like this one, suggested by Jan Arps of Greensboro, North Carolina.)

[Perry]

Pepsi-Cola's name originated from its formula, which included pepsin and kola nut. Just as the way that Coca-Cola's name related to its recipe.

It was first introduced in North Carolina in 1898 by Caleb Bradham, who made it at his pharmacy which sold the drink. Known back then as "Brad's Drink", it was later named Pepsi Cola possibly due the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe. Bradham sought to create a fountain drink that was delicious and would aid in digestion and boost energy.

BTW, here is some info on Coca-Cola, cocaine, and US manufacturing legalities.

When launched Coca-Cola's two key ingredients were cocaine (benzoylmethyl ecgonine) and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, leading to the name Coca-Cola (the "K" in Kola was replaced with a "C" for marketing purposes).

Coca — Cocaine
Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose; in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola did once contain an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass, but in 1903 it was removed. Coca-Cola still contains coca flavoring.

After 1904, instead of using fresh leaves, Coca-Cola started using "spent" leaves—the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process with cocaine trace levels left over at a molecular level. To this day, Coca-Cola uses as an ingredient a cocaine-free coca leaf extract prepared at a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey.

In the United States, Stepan Company is the only manufacturing plant authorized by the Federal Government to import and process the coca plant, which it obtains mainly from Peru and, to a lesser extent, Bolivia. Besides producing the coca flavoring agent for Coca-Cola, Stepan Company extracts cocaine from the coca leaves, which it sells to Mallinckrodt, a St. Louis, Missouri pharmaceutical manufacturer that is the only company in the United States licensed to purify cocaine for medicinal use. Stepan Company buys about 100 metric tons of dried Peruvian coca leaves each year, according to Marco Castillo, spokesman for Peru's state-owned National Coca Co.

[Stargzer]

...

Word History: English borrowed this word from Greek dyspepsia, which had the same meaning. The Greek word comprised dys- "un-, bad" + -pepsia "digestion". The root of pepsia goes back to Proto-Indo-European pekw- "to cook", so we see that the Greeks made the connection between food and body heat. ...

Or was it the connection between bad cooking and indigestion?

Maybe not; my old favorite, SYSTRANET, translates as follows:

dyspepsia -- δυσπεψία

indigestion -- δυσπεψία

bad cooking -- κακό μαγείρεμα

the word for bad, κακό, came through Latin as caco, a Latin verb, and is used as the first part of the name of the singer in the Asterix series, Cacofonix.

[Slava]

the word for bad, κακό, came through Latin as caco, a Latin verb, and is used as the first part of the name of the singer in the Asterix series, Cacofonix.

Also known to be used by the late, great George Carlin. As in: "Do-do, kaka, poo-poo, and good ol' number 2."

"The Overcoat," by Gogol, also stars Akaki Akakievich; Mr. Not Bad, son of Not Bad.

[misterdoe]

A recent comic strip (One Big Happy) had one of the kid characters defining dyspepsia as the condition of one who can only read soda can labels backwards.

[Perry]

Good one.