What does clyster mean?
A clyster is an enema: a fluid injected into the rectum to flush out the bowels or introduce medicinal substances. The word dominated English medical writing from roughly the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, when such treatments were a mainstay of mainstream practice, before gradually giving way to the now-familiar term 'enema'. Today clyster survives chiefly in historical fiction, period scholarship, and older medical texts, where it lends authentic period flavor. It may refer either to the injected liquid itself or, less commonly, to the syringe-like apparatus used to administer it. Because of its age and rarity, the word can strike modern readers as quaint or even slightly comic, yet in its own time it described one of the most routine procedures in the pharmacopoeia. Writers seeking historically accurate vocabulary for early-modern medicine will find clyster indispensable, though in contemporary clinical settings it would sound distinctly out of place.
nounA clyster is an enema — a liquid injected into the rectum to cleanse the bowels or administer medicine, or the instrument used for the purpose. The term is now largely historical, having been supplanted by 'enema' in modern medical usage.
- A liquid injected into the rectum to cleanse the bowels or deliver medication; an enema.
- (Historical) The syringe or instrument used to administer such an injection.
"The seventeenth-century physician prescribed a soothing clyster to relieve the patient's stubborn constipation."
"The apothecary prepared a warm clyster of water and honey to ease the count's digestive troubles."
"In the medical texts of the era, the brass clyster pipe was listed among the physician's essential instruments."
Regular English plural; common in historical medical texts referring to repeated treatments or different preparations.
"The regimen called for clysters twice daily until the humor was purged."
Before the word 'enema' caught on in English, doctors reached for 'clyster' — a term so old it appears in Shakespeare's day as the height of fashionable medicine.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clyster
Clyster entered English in the mid-sixteenth century, borrowed from Latin 'clyster', which itself derives from the Greek 'klystēr' (κλυστήρ), meaning 'a washing-out' or 'syringe for injection', from the verb 'klyzein', 'to wash or cleanse'. This same Greek root gave English the words 'chyle' and 'chyme', both relating to bodily fluids, and lies behind the prefix in terms like 'cataclysm' (literally a 'washing down'). The variant spelling 'glyster' was common in earlier English usage. As 'enema' — from a different Greek root meaning 'to inject' — rose to dominance, clyster faded into obsolescence by the nineteenth century.
How clyster is actually used
Clyster is archaic and rarely encountered outside historical, literary, or scholarly contexts. It carries a formal, old-fashioned tone, and modern readers are more likely to know its synonym 'enema'. The spelling variant 'glyster' also appears in older texts.
Easily confused with clyster
A clyster is an enema (a liquid injected into the bowel), while a cluster is a group of similar things gathered closely together.