herpes

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English herpēs, also erpes,^[2] borrowed from Latin herpēs (“a spreading skin eruption; shingles”),^{[3][4][5][6][2]} from Ancient Greek ἕρπης (hérpēs, “shingles, literally a creeping”),^[5][3][4] from ἕρπω (hérpō, “to creep, move slowly”).^[5][4][7] The Greek verb is cognate with Latin serpō (“to creep”), the source of serpent.^{[4][8][9][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A spreading disease of the skin: 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's “De Proprietatibus Rerum”.^[5][3][2] Hoad and Collins date the word only to the 17th century.^[7][11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English medicine it was a spreading eruption of blisters or pustules put down to "unnatural choler";^[2] herpes cingul was shingles and herpes estiomenus gangrene.^[2] Etymonline notes that the word covered any inflammatory, spreading skin condition and that these were not told apart as specific diseases until the early 19th century.^[4] The image of creeping shows in a 15th-century surgical text by Arderne, which describes the infection as lying lengthwise "as it were ane impetuous serpent".^[2] Johnson (1755), following Quincy, described two kinds, one like millet seed on the skin and a more corrosive one that forms little ulcers.^[12] From 1925 the word was also used of the group of viruses that cause such diseases, including shingles and chickenpox,^[5][13] and it now names chiefly the viral diseases.^[13][9]

Timeline

• 1398 – a spreading disease of the skin.^[5][3][2]
• early 19th century – the skin conditions it covered are told apart as specific diseases.^[4]
• 1925 – a herpesvirus.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several viral diseases marked by clusters of small blisters on the skin or mucous membranes, especially herpes simplex and herpes zoster.^[9][11][13]
2. A herpesvirus, the cause of these diseases.^[5][13]

Word family

• herpetic
• herpesvirus
• genital herpes

Related words

• herpetology
• serpent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press