cholinergic (adj.)

late 14c., "bile, melancholy" (originally the same as choler), from French cholera or directly from Late Latin cholera, from Greek kholera "a type of disease characterized by diarrhea, supposedly caused by bile" (Celsus), from khole "gall, bile," so called for its color, related to khloazein "to be green," khlōros "pale green, greenish-yellow," from PIE root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives denoting "green, yellow," and thus "bile, gall." But another sense of khole was "drainpipe, gutter."

Revived 1560s in classical sense as a name for a severe digestive disorder (rarely fatal to adults); and 1704 (especially as cholera morbus), for a highly lethal disease endemic in India, periodically breaking out in global epidemics, especially that reaching Britain and America in the early 1830s.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to do."

It forms all or part of: allergic; allergy; argon; boulevard; bulwark; cholinergic; demiurge; dramaturge; energy; erg (n.1) "unit of energy;" ergative; ergonomics; ergophobia; George; georgic; handiwork; irk; lethargic; lethargy; liturgy; metallurgy; organ; organelle; organic; organism; organize; orgy; surgeon; surgery; synergism; synergy; thaumaturge; work; wright; wrought; zymurgy.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek ergon "work," orgia "religious performances;" Armenian gorc "work;" Avestan vareza "work, activity;" Gothic waurkjan, Old English wyrcan "to work," Old English weorc "deed, action, something done;" Old Norse yrka "work, take effect."