1590s, "rheumatic, full of rheum, affected by rheum," from rheum + -y (2).
Entries linking to rheumy
rheum n.
late 14c., reume, "watery fluid or humid matter in the eyes, nose, or mouth" (including tears, saliva, mucous discharge from the nostrils), from Old French reume "a head-cold" (13c., Modern French rhume) and directly from Latin rheuma, reuma, from Greek rheuma "discharge from the body, flux; a stream, current, flood, a flowing," literally "that which flows," from rhein "to flow" (from PIE root *sreu- "to flow").
In old medicine it was conceived as draining from the higher to lower parts of the body and causing ailments if out of balance. Also from late 14c. as "a head-cold, catarrh." The -h- was restored in early Modern English.
-y 2
adjective suffix, "full of or characterized by," from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga- (source also of Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs), from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Originally added to nouns in Old English; used from 13c. with verbs, and by 15c. even with other adjectives (for example crispy). Adjectives such as hugy, vasty are artificial words that exist for the sake of poetical metrics.