tenesmus

Borrowing from Medieval Latin tēnesmus, from Ancient Greek τεινεσμός (teinesmós, “vain endeavor to evacuate”), from τείνω (teínō, “to stretch, to pull tight”) +‎ -εσμός (-esmós, nominal suffix).

• IPA^(key): /tɪˈnɛz.məs/

tenesmus (countable and uncountable, plural tenesmuses)

1. (medicine) A continual or recurrent but ineffectual inclination to evacuate the bowels, caused by disorder of the rectum or other illness.
   • 1790, William Bligh, A Narrative of the Mutiny:

     The general complaints of disease among us, were a dizziness in the head, great weakness of the joints, and violent tenesmus, most of us having had no evacuation by stool since we left the ship.

• tenesmic

• “tenesmus”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “tenesmus”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• muteness

Borrowing from Ancient Greek τεινεσμός (teinesmós, “vain endeavor to evacuate”), from τείνω (teínō, “to stretch, to pull tight”) +‎ -εσμός (-esmós, nominal suffix).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /teːˈnes.mus/, [t̪eːˈnɛs̠mʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /teˈnes.mus/, [t̪eˈnɛzmus]

tēnesmus m (genitive tēnesmī); second declension (Medieval Latin)

1. (medicine) tenesmus

Second-declension noun.