# cloaca
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cloāca (“sewer”), from cluō (“cleanse; purge”).

### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)
* (UK) IPA: /kləʊˈeɪkə/
* (US) IPA: /kloʊˈeɪkə/
* Rhymes: -eɪkə

### Noun

cloaca (plural cloacas or cloacae)
* (sometimes figurative) A sewer.
** 1773, Gentleman's Magazine, number 43, page 598:The Thames, polluted with the filthy effusions of the cloacae.
** 1850, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IV, in Latter-day Pamphlets, page 46:
** […] that tremendous cloaca of Pauperism […]
** 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 266:After working an hour, I began to speculate on the distance one had to go before the cloaca was reached the chances we had of missing it altogether.
* (anatomy, zoology) The opening in reptiles, amphibians and birds, as well as elasmobranchians, lobe-finned fishes, marsupials and monotreme mammals, which serves as the common outlet for the urogenital ducts and rectum.
** 1822, John Mason Good, The Study of Medicine, volume I, page 7:In birds the rectum, at the termination of its canal, forms an oval or elongated pouch […] and then expands into a cavity, which has been named cloaca.
* An outhouse or lavatory.
** 1840, Frederick Marryat, chapter XXIV, in Olla Podrida:To every house […] a cloaca.
** 1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 55:Only think of that cloaca being supplied daily with such dainty bibliographical treasures!
* (anatomy) A duct through which gangrenous material escapes a body.
** 1846, Joseph François Malgaigne, translated by Frederick Brittan, Manual of Operative Surgery, page 172:Across this shell [sc. of bone] small holes are eaten, by which the matter escapes, and which are called cloacae (Weidmann).
* (embryology) Structure in the embryo during the development of the reproductive and urinary systems.

#### Synonyms

* (sewer): See sewer
* (duct): See vent
* (outhouse or lavatory): See Thesaurus:bathroom

#### Hypernyms

* external genitalia

#### Derived terms

* cloacal
* cloacinal
* cloacitis
* persistent cloaca

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "cloaca, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1891.

### Anagrams

* Caloca

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cloaca.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˌkloːˈaː.kaː/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: clo‧a‧ca

### Noun

cloaca f (plural cloaca's)
* (zoology) cloaca (duct in certain vertebrates used for reproduction and excreting digestive waste)

#### Derived terms

* cloacadier

## Italian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cloaca. Cognate to the inherited doublet chiavica.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kloˈa.ka/
* Rhymes: -aka
* Hyphenation: clo‧à‧ca

### Noun

cloaca f (plural cloache)
* sewer
* cesspit, cesspool
* (anatomy) cloaca

#### Derived terms

* cloacale

### Further reading

* cloaca in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* clovāca, cluāca (Late Republican)
* coācla, covācla (metathesis, proscribed)
* clāvaca, clābaca (later metathesis)

### Etymology

Related to cluō (“cleanse”), but the derivation is uncertain. See de Vaan (2008) for discussion.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /kloˈaː.ka/, [kɫ̪oˈäːkä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /kloˈa.ka/, [kloˈäːkä]

### Noun

cloāca f (genitive cloācae); first declension
* An underground drain, sewer.
** (humorous) Of the mouth and intestines of a voracious person.

#### Declension

First-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* cloācālis
* cloācārium
* Cloācīna
* cloācula

#### Descendants

* Italian: chiavica
** Tuscan, Umbrian: chiòca, chiòvina, chiòdina, chiòcana
* Neapolitan: chiaveca
* Portuguese: colaga (“alley”)
* ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *clavacaria
** Catalan: claveguera
* → Catalan: cloaca
* → Danish: kloak
* → English: cloaca
* → French: cloaque
* → German: Kloake
* → Irish: clóáca
* → Italian: cloaca
* → Portuguese: cloaca
* → Romanian: cloacă
* → Spanish: cloaca
* Translingual: Enterobacter cloacae

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cloāca”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 122

### Further reading

* “cloaca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “cloaca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "cloaca", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* “cloaca”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “cloaca”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cloaca.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /kloˈa.kɐ/
* (Brazil) IPA: /kloˈa.kɐ/
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /kloˈa.ka/
* (Portugal) IPA: /kluˈa.kɐ/, (faster pronunciation) /ˈklwa.kɐ/
* Rhymes: -akɐ
* Hyphenation: clo‧a‧ca

### Noun

cloaca f (plural cloacas)
* (anatomy) cloaca (excretory and genital duct in bird, reptiles and fish)

## Romanian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈklo̯aka]

### Noun

cloaca f
* definite nominative/accusative singular of cloacă

## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cloāca (“sewer”), from cluō (“cleanse”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kloˈaka/ [kloˈa.ka]
* Rhymes: -aka
* Syllabification: clo‧a‧ca

### Noun

cloaca f (plural cloacas)
* sewer, storm drain
* (zoology) cloaca

#### Derived terms

* cloacal
* rata de cloaca

### Further reading

* “cloaca”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10