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Origin and history of urine

urine(n.)

"waste product of the digestive system normally discharged from the bladder," also as a diagnostic tool in medicine and an ingredient in household preparations, c. 1300, from Old French orine, urine (12c.) and directly from Latin urina "urine," from PIE *ur-, which is regarded as the source also of Greek ouron "urine." It is held to be a variant of root *we-r- "water, liquid, milk" (source also of Sanskrit var "water," Avestan var "rain," Lithuanian jūrės "sea," Old English wær, Old Norse ver "sea," Old Norse ur "drizzling rain"), which is related to *eue-dh-r (see udder).

Entries linking to urine

Old English udder "milk glands of a cow, goat, etc., when large and baggy and having more than one teat," from Proto-Germanic *udr- (source also of Old Frisian uder, Middle Dutch uyder, Dutch uijer, Old High German utar, German Euter, and, with unexplained change of consonant, Old Norse jugr), from PIE *eue-dh-r "udder" (source also of Sanskrit udhar, Greek outhar, Latin uber "udder, breast," also "fruitful").

"absence of urination," 1838, medical Latin, from Greek an- "not, without" (see an- (1)) + ouron "urine" (see urine) + abstract noun ending -ia.

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