Etymologically
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rabies

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɹeɪ.biːz/[1]

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

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