incontinence

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   inability to control the bladder or bowels, resulting in involuntary urination or defecation

   The clinic offers confidential treatment for urinary incontinence.

2. 2
   noun

   formal or historical: lack of self-restraint, especially in relation to bodily appetites or sexual conduct

   The moralist condemned drunkenness and incontinence as failures of self-command.

From Middle English incontinence, through Old French from Latin incontinentia ("lack of restraint"), formed from in- ("not") and continentia ("self-control"). The medical sense applies the same failure-to-contain idea to bodily discharges.

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