tenesmus
te·nes·mus
noun
1.
painful spasm of the anal sphincter along with an urgent desire to defecate without the significant production of feces; associated with irritable bowel syndrome
Origin
Borrowing from Medieval Latin tēnesmus, from Ancient Greek τεινεσμός (teinesmós, “vain endeavor to evacuate”), from τείνω (teínō, “to stretch, to pull tight”) + -εσμός (-esmós, nominal suffix).
Related words
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.