Other forms: colics
Colic is long unexplained crying in a small baby. Suffer from colic, colic drops, a colicky baby.
The usual definition is crying for more than three hours a day, more than three days a week, for more than three weeks, in a baby that is otherwise well. The cause is genuinely unknown, which is what makes it so hard on parents, and it nearly always resolves by about four months. In horses, colic is abdominal pain and is a veterinary emergency — a quite different and serious use of the same word.
1nouncolicLong unexplained crying in a small baby.
“Our baby had colic and cried every evening for hours, no matter what we did.”
2nounabdominalAbdominal pain in a horse.
“Colic in a horse is an emergency in roughly every case.”
colic is a condition of pain or crying.
French colique comes from Greek kolikos, suffering in the colon. The colon gave the word its name even though the modern infant condition has no confirmed cause at all.
Ancient Greek
κωλικός — suffering in the colon
French
colique
English, today
colic
Borrowed from French colique. Ultimately derived from Ancient Greek κωλικός (“suffering in the colon”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Babies & Growing Up, Horses & Riding