If I used the word "dyspepsia" or "dyspeptic," would you know what I meant without looking it up?

Well, yes.

No.

Maybe it’s an age thing?

yep

yes

Well, I am a Coke drinker, so I would never ask for Dispepsi or Datpepsi.

Yeap!

@elbanditoroso for the win best answer.

No, I don’t know those words.

No, not at all.

Hint: Think Pepto-Bismol. Same root.

Yes.

I could gather from the “dys” that it could be the root that’s in “dyslexia” or “dysfunctional”. The latter part, I have no clue, though. Perhaps it has its roots in a word for a soft drink?

Dyspeptic is one of many words that I’ve read and guessed the meaning based on context, usually used in reference to a character’s personality or expression (gloomy, pessimistic, irritable). I’ve never looked it up, never before sounded out the pronunciation and have never used it in a conversation, but I had a general idea of meaning. (There are a lot of words that I have assigned an assumed meaning to, and it’s very disorienting when I discover that I had it completely wrong. I must admit that the immediate word look-up on my Kindle is pretty awesome.)

Short answer: sort of.

Another hint: Think peptic ulcer.

Nope.

Yes, I did know the meaning when I saw the question.

Please update us on your family argument when you’ve gathered enough responses.

Like @syz i had inferred the meaning from reading using contextual clues. They are not words i would use in conversation though.

Just wanted to pop in so I could twat @elbanditoroso over the head with a coke bottle for having the sheer audacity to steal my gag…harumph !!

Nope. Curious now!

I put this in Social and make a side bet with myself to see who chose that particular gag.

Don’t eat & gamble, can lead to indigestion/heartburn

Words like that give me heartburn.

^Sounds rather like a Michael Bolton song <spits on floor>

Sounds like an STD.

I love the word. Bless you, Gail, for using it. I would certainly comprehend.

Yes, but only because I looked it up recently.

Yes.

I know it because of my knòwledge of modern Greek? All medical terms areof Greek origin.

No, but I will look it up.

δυσπέψις

Yes I would know exactly what it means. I’ve experienced it on a number of occasions too.

Yes.

I clearly remember learning the word dyspeptic when it came up in a book we were reading in high school English.

But I have no memory of the book. Must have been a great novel if I just remember one word. :-)

I just heard “dyspeptic” being said, if you can believe it, by Deputy Commisioner William Rawls, on The Wire, season three, episode one…not half an hour ago.

That gave me a frisson.

It would give me chills.

Awful condition, that constant stomach-churning, that unbearable heavy load that reaches the chest. Try living with it!

Yes, and I think it may, indeed be an age thing, it doesn’t seem to be used much anymore. Without context, I have noticed that folks much younger than I am don’t really get it, unless they look at the roots.

I’ve always known that I’m a true Victorian and that I’ll die of consumption or apoplexy after suffering from a severe bout of dyspepsia. I think I have to avail myself of my fainting couch just at the thought of it.

Oh, @janbb, I hate to think of you as having the vapors! Stay strong, little penguin!

@canidmajor I imagine you’d find i quite amusing to see the Penguin doing a Mdme Recamier act.

I’m sure it would make a fine Gorey illustration.

@dappled_leaves Just give me a handkerchief to drop from my flipper as I faint.

Middlemarch of the Penguins, anyone?

What about megrims and the pip?

Yes. I learned it from MAD magazine when I was a kid.

@gailcalled How about the flux and hysteria?

and the lovely catarrh

I have never looked up the words but always assumed dyspepsia referred to a condition that caused a lot of gas and discomfort in the gut…

I think I may be suffering from a wasting disease.

I think I have total body dropsy.

Dr. Hippocrates will prescribe a moon’s worth of leeches for all of the above maladies.

:-| Leeches! Egads!

@Brian1946 How about just a poultice, some blancmange and a liniment?

@janbb Not a blancmange!

I’m feeling like one of the Little Women right about now. That should be a buzz-feed quiz. Which “little woman” are you? Would anyone be anyone other than Jo?

Was this in General or Social?

@janbb “Would anyone be anyone other than Jo?”

In this thread, it seems we’re all Beth.

Brits in India during the Raj called blancmange “shape.” I remember this from “The Raj Quartet.”

(Social)

@gailcalled Yes, but can it play tennis?

@dappled_leaves I feel like a blancmange at times particularly after being in a Jacuzzi – I mean after taking the waters at Baden-Baden – and could definitely not play tennis at those times.

And Oh – poor Beth! And that rotten Amy getting Laurie! I think I learned about the unfairness of love and life from that book.

I may have a touch of neurasthenia at the moment and must go talk to my amanuensis.

Y’all should just have some chicken soup. @gailcalled and @janbb – I’m shocked that neither of you has made this prescription yet, for all of the above. I may be guilty of some cultural stereotyping, but isn’t that a stereotypical recommendation that either of your mothers would have given?

^^ Original question was relative to semantics rather than gustation.

@janbb Game, set, and match blancmange then, I suspect.

^^If so, that leaves me bent out of blancmange.

The blancmange episode in Little Women.

Chapter five; Jo to Laurie:

“Here I am, bag and baggage,” she said briskly. “Mother sent her love, and was glad if I could do anything for you. Meg wanted me to bring some of her blanc-mange; she makes it very nicely, and Beth thought her cats would be comforting.”

“That looks too pretty to eat,” he said, smiling with pleasure, as Jo uncovered the dish, and showed the blanc-mange, surrounded by a garland of green leaves, and the scarlet flowers of Amy’s pet geranium.

“It isn’t anything, only they all felt kindly, and wanted to show it. Tell the girl to put it away for your tea; it’s so simple, you can eat it; and being soft, it will slip down without hurting your sore throat…”

@gailcalled It sounds awful! I must confess, I have never liked gelatinous foods.

It wobbles if you so much as look at it sideways. But call it flan or creme brulée instead and then, whoa, mama.

Well, crème brulee has that delightful crunch. Very different textural experience.

True until you get below the brûlée and down to the creme.

Is this a thread on textural analysis?

I can forgive the crème, as long as it has the brulee.

@janbb It is now?

It’s all about the creme, bout the creme not the brulee…...(sings)

@janbb We’ve come a long way from Little Women in just a few posts!

But Marmee says we can always return.