Strangury (or stranguria) is the symptom characterized by painful, frequent urination of small volumes that are expelled slowly only by straining and despite a severe sense of urgency, usually with the residual feeling of incomplete emptying. The origin of the term is late 14th-century Middle English from Latin strangūria, from Greek, from stranx, 'a drop squeezed out' + ouron 'urine.' These 'drops' of urine are 'squeezed out' in what patients describe as painful 'wrenching' spasms. The pain is felt to arise in the suprapubic region, extends up to the root of the genitalia and in male patients, to the tip of the penis.