rabies

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness, fury; savageness”),^[2][3][4][5] used in New Latin for the disease,^[6] from rabiō (“to rage, rave, be mad”),^[5][4][7][2] of uncertain origin.^[5] The Latin noun is also the source of Old French rabe (1288), French rage, Old Occitan rabia, Catalan ràbia, Spanish rabia and Italian rabbia,^[5] and through French of English rage, a doublet of rabies.^[2][7] Rabid is from the related rabidus.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded in 1598, in Florio's World of Words.^[2][6] The OED's first record, from 1649, is for the disease, in a translation of van Helmont;^[5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1655–65.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Latin rabiēs meant fury or madness, and the madness of dogs was a secondary sense;^[7][3] the word was later adopted as the name of the disease behind it.^[7] English had earlier used rage for this.^[5] In humans the disease was known as hydrophobia.^[3][9] A figurative use is recorded from about 1717.^[5]

Timeline

• 1598 – in Florio's dictionary.^[2][6]
• 1649 – the viral disease of dogs and other animals.^[5]
• c. 1717 – figurative use.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An acute and usually fatal viral disease of the nervous system of warm-blooded animals, passed on in the saliva of infected animals, especially through dog bites, and marked by convulsions, an aversion to water and paralysis; also called hydrophobia or lyssa.^{[9][6][5][10]}

Word family

• rabietic
• antirabies
• pseudorabies

Related words

• rabid
• rage

Usage notes

The first edition of the OED (1903) gave a three-syllable pronunciation, /ˈreɪbɪiːz/.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press