Did you know?
If you’ve ever told someone (or been told yourself) to “quit bellyaching,” then you should have no trouble grokking the gastronomic origins of dyspeptic, an adjective used in formal speech and writing to describe someone with a bad temper. To wit, indigestion (aka dyspepsia) is often accompanied by nausea, heartburn, and gas—symptoms that can turn even your cheeriest chum into a curmudgeonly crank. So it’s no wonder that dyspepsia can refer both to a sour stomach and a sour mood, or that its adjective form, dyspeptic, can describe someone afflicted by either. The pep in both words comes from the Greek pep-, base of the verb péptein meaning “to cook, ripen, or digest.”
Did you know?
Dyspepsia comes from the Greek word for "bad digestion". Interestingly, the Greek verb pessein can mean either "to cook" or "to digest;" bad cooking has been responsible for a lot of dyspepsia. Dyspepsia can be caused by many diseases, but dyspeptic individuals are often the victims of their own habits and appetites. Worry, overeating, inadequate chewing, and excessive smoking and drinking can all bring on dyspepsia. Today we generally use dyspeptic to mean "irritable"—that is, in the kind of mood that could be produced by bad digestion.
Cite this Entry
“Dyspeptic.” Merriam-Webster.com Medical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/dyspeptic. Accessed 7 Jun. 2025.
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