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Origin and history of constipate

constipate(v.)

1530s, "to fill or cram the intestinal canal with fecal matter," in part a back-formation from constipation, in part from Latin constipatus, past participle of constipare "to press or crowd closely together." An earlier verb in this sense was constipen (late 14c.). General sense of "crowd or cram into a narrow compass" is from 1540s in English, Related: Constipated; constipating.

also from 1530s

Entries linking to constipate

constipated(adj.)

"having difficulty evacuating the bowels while they are filled or crammed with fecal matter," 1530s, past-participle adjective from constipate (v.).

constipation(n.)

c. 1400, "costiveness, bowel condition in which evacuations are obstructed or difficult" (more fully, constipacioun of þe wombe), from Late Latin constipationem (nominative constipatio), noun of state from past-participle stem of Latin constipare "to press or crowd together," from assimilated form of com- "together" (see con-) + stipare "to cram, pack, compress, surround" (see stiff (adj.)).

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