a. and sb. [f. Gr. εὔπεπτ-ος easy of digestion, having a good digestion (f. εὐ- EU- + πέπ-τειν to digest) + -IC.]
A. adj.
† 1. Promoting ‘eupepsy,’ assisting digestion. rare.
1699. Evelyn, Acetaria, 89. Those [herbs] that are Eupeptic, and promote Concoction.
2. Having a good digestion.
1831. Carlyle, Schiller, Misc. Ess. (1888), III. 87. The perennial never-failing joys of a digestive apparatus thoroughly eupeptic.
1848. Clough, Bothie, III. 10/19. E’en after dinner, eupeptic, would rush yet again to his reading.
absol. 1883. Times, 8 March, 9/3. City dinners may be an excellent form of amusement for the eupeptic and robust.
3. Of or pertaining to ‘eupepsy’ or good digestion; characteristic of, or resulting from, good digestion.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), IV. 241. A massiveness of eupeptic vigour.
1859. Lewes, Phys. Com. Life, I. 137. Persons … living in that happy eupeptic ignorance which only knows Digestion as a name.
1866. Carlyle, Edw. Irving, in Remin. (1881), I. 172. At length his faculties were getting hebetated, wrapt in lazy eupeptic fat.
4. nonce-use. Studious of what conduces to good digestion.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., III. ii. 60. Terrell, never scientifically eupeptic, went in for a couple of dozen [oysters].
5. Easy of digestion; easily digested.
1864. in Webster; and in mod. Dicts.
1731. Bailey, vol. II., Eupepticks, medicines, or other things that promote concoction.
Hence Eupepticity, the state or condition of feeling resulting from good digestion.
1849. Carlyle, Irish Journ., 152. Simplicity, energy, eupepticity; a right healthy thick-sided Irish soul. Ibid. (1865), Fredk. Gt., V. XIII. vii. 77. No man … has swum through such seas of transcendent eupepticity.
