dyspepsia

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   pain, discomfort, bloating, nausea, or heartburn arising from the upper digestive tract; indigestion

   Persistent dyspepsia after meals led her to consult a doctor.

2. 2
   noun

   dated and figurative: habitual irritability, gloom, or dissatisfaction

   The columnist's chronic dyspepsia colored even his praise with complaint.

Simplified etymology

Dyspepsia entered English in the mid-17th century through Latin from Greek duspepsia, derived from duspeptos, meaning “difficult to digest.”

From Greek dyspepsia, 'bad digestion,' formed from dys-, 'bad or difficult,' and pepsis, 'digestion,' from peptein, 'to digest or cook.' Nineteenth-century writers associated chronic indigestion with a sour disposition, producing the now dated figurative sense of irritability or gloom.

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