plethoric

From Late Latin plethoricus, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek πληθωρικός (plēthōrikós), from πληθώρα (plēthṓra, “plethora”). By surface analysis, plethora +‎ -ic.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈplɛθəɹɪk/, /plɛˈθɒɹɪk/

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plethoric (comparative more plethoric, superlative most plethoric)

1. (medicine) Suffering from plethora; ruddy in complexion, congested or swollen with blood. [from 14th c.]

   Coordinate term: flushed

   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

     a horse-leech, whose deep maw
     The plethoric King Swellfoot could not fill,
     And who, till full, will cling for ever.

   • 1842, Gibbons Merle, John Reitch, The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper’s Manual: Comprising Everything Related to Cookery, Diet, Economy and Medicine. By Gibbons Merle. The Medical Portion of the Work by John Reitch, M.D., London: William Strange, 21, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 360, column 2:

     If the predisposition to the disease has arisen from a plethoric state of the system, or from a turgescence in the vessels of the head, this is to be obviated by bleeding, both generally and topically, but more particularly the latter; an abstemious diet and proper exercise; and by a seton in the neck.

   • 1941, W Somerset Maugham, Up at the Villa, Vintage, published 2004, page 81:

     Harold Atkinson, her host, was a fine handsome grey-haired man, plethoric and somewhat corpulent, with an eye for a pretty woman […].

2. Excessive, overabundant, rife; loosely, abundant, varied. [from 17th c.]
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 161:

     the judges [...] were arranging their robes and coughing into their fists, the ebb and flow of their plethoric wigs like a flock of sheep on the run.

• plethora