er·y·sip·e·las

(ĕr′ĭ-sĭp′ə-ləs, îr′-)

1. An acute bacterial infection of the skin and superficial lymphatic vessels, caused by streptococci and marked by localized inflammation and fever. Also called Saint Anthony's fire.

2. Infection of pigs, sheep, turkeys, or other animals with the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, characterized by symptoms such as skin lesions and arthritis in mammals and septicemia in fowl. Humans who become infected with the bacterium from handling infected animals or animal products can develop erysipeloid.

[Middle English erisipila, from Latin erysipelas, from Greek erusipelas : erusi-, red; see reudh- in Indo-European roots + -pelas, skin; see pel- in Indo-European roots.]

er′y·si·pel′a·tous (-sĭ-pĕl′ə-təs) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Jan wrote: "He suffered from a 'cold' and an erysipelatous infection of one of his huge legs.

THEBIGSCOTTISHGIANT; LARGER THAN LIFE AMAZING STORY OF GLASGOW'S 'HEAVIEST MAN IN THE WORLD' GLASGOW'S At 52 stone, William Campbell was put on display in his early 20s for people to laugh at. But he was happy and would poke fun at himself - he wasn't just the Big Friendly Giant, he was the BSG.

Also from disease of the maw come many and various diseases of burston wounds, and cramps, and epilepsy, and fiends disease, and mickle murmurings and uneasiness without occasion, and erysipelatous eruptions, and immoderate desires for meat, and immense want of appetite, and daintinesses, and sore internal diseases in foeminae naturalibus, that is, the uterus, and in the feet, and in the bladder, and despondency, and immoderately long wakings, and witless words.

Women and Language in the Anglo-Saxon Leechbooks [1]

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