What does emerod mean?
"Emerod" is the archaic English word for what modern medicine calls a hemorrhoid — a swollen vein or mass of veins at the anus, often painful or itchy. The term appears frequently in early modern English, most memorably in the King James Bible of 1611, where it names one of the plagues inflicted on the Philistines after they captured the Ark of the Covenant. Like its synonym "piles," it belonged to everyday speech for centuries before "hemorrhoid," borrowed from Greek roots meaning blood-flow, displaced it in both medical and polite usage. Today readers meet "emerod" almost exclusively in historical, biblical, or literary contexts, where its slightly alien spelling signals antiquity. It is always a noun and normally appears in the plural, as the condition typically involves more than one swelling. For anyone reading seventeenth-century texts or older translations of scripture, knowing that "emerods" simply means hemorrhoids removes a needless obstacle to comprehension.
nounAn archaic spelling and pronunciation variant of "hemorrhoid": a swollen vein or cluster of veins in the region of the anus. The word survives chiefly in older English texts, most famously the King James Bible.
- A swollen vein at the anus; a hemorrhoid (archaic term).
"The old physician's casebook recorded remedies for everything from fevers to emerods."
"Medieval medical texts prescribed poultices and ointments for the treatment of emerods."
"The chronicler blamed the king's long illness partly on grievous emerods."
The plural is by far the most common form, since the condition usually involves multiple swellings; singular "emerod" occurs occasionally.
"According to 1 Samuel, smitten Philistines were afflicted with emerods in their secret parts."
When the King James translators needed a word for the plague that struck the Philistines, they reached for "emerods" — the old English name for piles.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of emerod
"Emerod" derives from Old French "emoroide(s)", itself from Latin "haemorrois", borrowed from Greek "haimorrhois", a compound of "haima" (blood) and "rhoia" (a flow) — literally a flow of blood. The same Greek elements give English "hemorrhage", while the flowing root also underlies "diarrhea" and "catarrh". The spelling "emerod" reflects early modern phonetic reduction of the longer French and Latin forms; the standard modern form "hemorrhoid" was later re-Latinized from the Greek.
How emerod is actually used
Strictly historical or literary in modern usage; contemporary writing uses "hemorrhoid" (medical register) or "piles" (informal British). Encountered mainly when reading the King James Bible or early modern documents.
Easily confused with emerod
"Emerod" is an archaic word for a hemorrhoid, while "emerald" is a green gemstone; the two look similar only in spelling.