rrhage

rrhage is a combining form used in medical terminology to denote abnormal discharge, especially bleeding. It derives from a Greek root meaning bursting forth or discharge and is typically appended to a base word to indicate the event or process of bleeding. In English, the most familiar example is hemorrhage (haemorrhage in British English), which refers to the rapid loss of blood, whether externally or internally, and can be life-threatening depending on context. The suffix also appears in various specialized terms, particularly in gynecology, such as menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding) and metrorrhagia (bleeding at irregular intervals).

In usage, -rrhage forms nouns that describe the act, occurrence, or amount of bleeding or discharge. The spelling can vary with regional conventions, such as hemorrhage vs haemorrhage, but the underlying meaning remains the same. There is a closely related suffix -rrhagia, which often designates a condition of abnormal bleeding and is seen in terms like menorrhagia and metrorrhagia; while related, -rrhage and -rrhagia are not always interchangeable and appear in different lexical patterns within medical terminology.

Etymology tracing places the suffix in the Greek rhage, meaning a bursting forth. Today, -rrhage is mainly encountered in technical, clinical, and academic writing and is seldom used outside such contexts. It is primarily a diagnostic or descriptive tool, signaling the presence or history of bleeding within a patient’s condition or a physiological process.