constipation

Pronunciation: /ˌkɒnstɪˈpeɪʃən/

The English word “constipation” has 2 meanings listed here.

noun

A state of the bowels in which the evacuations are infrequent and difficult, or the intestines become filled with hardened faeces.
The act of crowding anything into a lesser space, or the state of being crowded or pressed together; condensation.

Etymology

First attested in the beginning of the 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English constipacioun, borrowed from Medieval Latin constīpātiō or its Old French equivalent, from cōnstīpō + -tiō. By surface analysis, constipate + -ion.

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