urine

urine
   For centuries, diagnosing illness by observing the patient's urine was standard medical procedure, and folk healers and *cunning men continued doing so, especially for suspected *witchcraft. It had an essential role in a common type of *counterspell to cure such illness, based on the idea that the magic link between the witch and her victim could be exploited to cause pain to the former, using the victim's urine as the medium. It could be heated in a *witch bottle, or baked in a cake, as *Herrick describes (Hesperides (1648), no. 891). The witch would hurry to her victim's house, begging for mercy, and would agree to lift her spell (Opie and Tatem, 1989: 416-18).
   In folk *medicine, a lotion made from urine was thought good for chilblains; in the Fens, it had to be 'the last urine passed by a dying person, mixed with beastlings, the first milk given by a cow after calving' (Folklore 69 (1958), 118).

A Dictionary of English folklore. . 2014.

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  • urine — [ yrin ] n. f. • XIIe var. orine; lat. pop. °aurina, d apr. aurum « or », à cause de la couleur; lat. urina ♦ Liquide organique clair et ambré, limpide, odorant, qui se forme dans le rein, séjourne dans la vessie et est évacué par l urètre… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Urine — U rine, n. [F. urine, L. urina; akin to urinari to plunge under water, to dive, Gr. ? urine; cf. Skr. v[=a]r water, Icel. ?r drizzling rain, AS. w[ae]r the sea.] (Physiol.) In mammals, a fluid excretion from the kidneys; in birds and reptiles, a… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • urine — early 14c., from O.Fr. urine (12c.), from L. urina urine, from PIE *ur (Cf. Gk. ouron urine ), variant of root *awer to moisten, flow (Cf. Skt. var water, Avestan var rain, Lith. jures sea, O.E. wær …   Etymology dictionary

  • urine — Urine, Lotium, Vrina. Quand une urine en pissant est ainsi tortuë comme celle d un porceau qui pisse, Vrina tortuosa. Urine graveleuse, pleine de gravelle. Vrina arenosa …   Thresor de la langue françoyse

  • urine — [yoor′in] n. [OFr < L urina, urine < IE * ūr , var. of base * awer , to moisten, flow > WATER, Gr ouron, urine] a waste product of vertebrates and many invertebrates, secreted by the kidneys or other excretory structures: in mammals, it… …   English World dictionary

  • Urine — U rine, v. i. To urinate. [Obs.] Bacon. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • urine — ► NOUN ▪ a pale yellowish fluid stored in the bladder and discharged through the urethra, consisting of excess water and waste substances removed from the blood by the kidneys. ORIGIN Latin urina …   English terms dictionary

  • Urine — (from Latin Urina, ae, f.) is a typically sterile (in the absence of a disease condition)[1] liquid by product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism… …   Wikipedia

  • Urine — Un flacon d urine récolté en vue d analyses en laboratoire. L urine est un liquide organique composé des déchets de l organisme. L urine est secrétée par les reins par filtration du sang, puis par récupération des molécules de l urine… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • urine — (u ri n ) s. f. Liquide excrémentitiel sécrété par les reins, d où il coule, par les uretères, dans la vessie, qui, après l avoir conservé en dépôt pendant quelque temps, le chasse au dehors par l urèthre en se contractant. Suppression d urine.… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • urine — /yoor in/, n. the liquid to semisolid waste matter excreted by the kidneys, in humans being a yellowish, slightly acid, watery fluid. [1275 1325; ME < OF < L urina] * * * Liquid solution of metabolic wastes and other, often toxic, substances… …   Universalium

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