cathartic
cathartic Lexical Profile
cathartic Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Providing psychological relief through the open expression and release of strong or repressed emotions.
"Writing in her journal every evening proved to be a deeply cathartic experience after the loss of her grandmother."
Relating to or inducing the evacuation of the bowels; purgative or laxative.
"Early physicians frequently prescribed strong cathartic herbs to purge what they believed were excess bodily humors."
• noun
A medicine or agent that accelerates defecation and purges the bowels; a strong laxative.
"In cases of acute toxin ingestion, a saline cathartic may occasionally be administered under medical supervision."
• Rhymes for cathartic
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the early 17th century via Late Latin catharticus from Ancient Greek kathartikos ('fit for cleansing'), derived from kathairein ('to cleanse or purge'), from katharos ('pure, clean'). While originally applied to medical purgatives, its modern psychological sense stems from Aristotle's Poetics, which described tragedy as achieving a 'catharsis' (purging) of pity and fear.