cathartic

• cathartick (obsolete)

Learned borrowing from New Latin catharticus, from Ancient Greek καθαρτικός (kathartikós).

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tɪk

cathartic (comparative more cathartic, superlative most cathartic)

1. Purgative; inducing mental or physical catharsis.

   Shaving, my favorite activity, is very cathartic.

2. That which releases emotional tension, especially after an overwhelming experience.
   • 2023 November 1, Ian Prosser talks to Stefanie Foster, “Safety Mission: Possible”, in RAIL, number 995, page 37:

     "So, there are real opportunities to create real change with enforcement." Prosser describes how some of that change is also cathartic to those who have been directly affected by incidents on the railway, such as the families who have lost loved ones.

cathartic (plural cathartics)

1. (medicine) A laxative.
   • 1833, R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blnachard, page 165:

     The disease was regarded as pneumonia so far advanced that suppuration seemed to have supervened; bleeding, blisters, expectorants, and cathartics diminished the symptoms; the pulse continued frequent, hard, full, but always regular.

Borrowed from French cathartique, from New Latin catharticus, from Ancient Greek καθαρτικός (kathartikós).

cathartic m or n (feminine singular cathartică, masculine plural cathartici, feminine and neuter plural cathartice)

1. cathartic