syphilis

syph·i·lis  (sf-ls)

n.

A chronic infectious disease caused by a spirochete (Treponema pallidum), either transmitted by direct contact, usually in sexual intercourse, or passed from mother to child in utero, and progressing through three stages characterized respectively by local formation of chancres, ulcerous skin eruptions, and systemic infection leading to general paresis.

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[New Latin, from "Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus," "Syphilis, or the French Disease," title of a poem by Girolamo Fracastoro (1478?-1553), from Syphilus, the poem's protagonist.]

Word History: In 1530 Girolamo Fracastoro, a physician, astronomer, and poet of Verona, published a poem entitled "Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus," translated as "Syphilis, or the French Disease." In Fracastoro's poem the name of this dreaded venereal disease is an altered form of the name of the hero Syphilus, a shepherd who is supposed to have been the first victim of the disease. Where the name Syphilus itself came from is not known for certain, but it has been suggested that Fracastoro borrowed it from Ovid's Metamorphoses. In Ovid's work Sipylus (spelled Siphylus in some manuscripts) is the oldest son of Niobe, who lived not far from Mount Sipylon in Asia Minor. Fracastoro's poem about Syphilus was modeled on the story of Niobe. Fracastoro went on to use the term syphilis again in his medical treatise De Contagione, published in 1546. The word that Fracastoro used in Latin was eventually borrowed into English, being first recorded in 1718.

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syphilis

Noun

a sexually transmitted disease that causes sores on the genitals and eventually on other parts of the body [Syphillis, hero of a 16th-century Latin poem]

syphilitic adj

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syphilis  (sf-ls)

A sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum that is characterized in its primary stage by genital sores. If untreated, skin ulcers develop in the next stage, called secondary syphilis. As the disease progresses to potentially fatal tertiary syphilis, neurologic involvement with weakness and skeletal or cardiovascular damage can occur.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

syphilis - a common venereal disease caused by the treponema pallidum spirochete; symptoms change through progressive stages; can be congenital (transmitted through the placenta) lues, lues venerea, pox, syph sexually transmitted disease, social disease, STD, VD, venereal disease, venereal infection, Venus's curse, Cupid's disease, Cupid's itch, dose - a communicable infection transmitted by sexual intercourse or genital contact primary syphilis - the first stage; characterized by a chancre at the site of infection secondary syphilis - the second stage; characterized by eruptions of the skin and mucous membrane tertiary syphilis - the third stage; characterized by involvement of internal organs especially the brain and spinal cord as well as the heart and liver neurosyphilis - syphilis of the central nervous system chancre - a small hard painless nodule at the site of entry of a pathogen (as syphilis)

Translations

syphilis [ˈsɪfɪlɪs] n → sífilis f

syphilis [ˈsɪfɪlɪs] n → syphilis f

syphilis [ˈsɪfɪlɪs] n → Syphilis f

syphilis [ˈsɪfɪlɪs] n → sifilide f