syphilis
pronunciation
How to pronounce syphilis in British English:
UK [ˈsɪfɪlɪs]
How to pronounce syphilis in American English:
US [ˈsɪfəlɪs]
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- Noun:
- a common venereal disease caused by the Treponema pallidum spirochete; symptoms change through progressive stages; can be congenital (transmitted through the placenta)
Word Origin
- syphilis
- syphilis: [18] Syphilus was the name of a shepherd who according to Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus (Syphilis or the French disease) 1530, a poem by the Veronese doctor Girolamo Fracastoro, was the first sufferer from syphilis. The word Syphilis in Fracastoro’s title meant simply ‘narrative about Syphilus’; he did not use it as a generic term for the disease until 1546, in a treatise called De contagione (Concerning contagious disease). It is not known where he got the name Syphilus from.
- syphilis (n.)
- infectious venereal disease, 1718, Modern Latin, originally from the title of a poem, "Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus" "Syphilis, or the French Disease," published 1530, by Veronese doctor Girolamo Fracastoro (1483-1553), which tells the tale of the shepherd Syphilus, supposed to be the first sufferer from the disease. Fracastoro first used the word as a generic term for the disease in his 1546 treatise "De Contagione." Why he chose the name is unknown; it may be intended as Latin for "Pig-lover," though there was also a Sipylus, a son of Niobe, in Ovid.
Example
- 1. Many of those who stay are drunks with syphilis .
- 2. The other three are chlamydial infection , syphilis and chancroid .
- 3. Ironically , he died from syphilis - the result of a medical infection .
- 4. Syphilis cases among young people aged 15 to 24 have increased in both males and females in recent years .
- 5. Lisa and I were tested for aids t.b.gonorrhea and syphilis and had complete physicals and psychological evaluations .