elephantiasis

Forms

elephantiasis f sg (genitive elephantiasis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐλεφαντίασις (elephantíasis),^[2][3][4] from ἐλέφας (eléphas, “elephant; ivory”), which in Greek was itself also a name of the disease.^[5][6] Vegetius explains that the disease is named from its likeness to the elephant.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus (14–37 AD) describes the disease “which the Greeks call elephantiasis”, writing the word in Greek letters;^[7][8] Pliny the Elder uses it as a Latin word.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

The word named a serious skin disease related to leprosy;^[8][9] the OLD takes it to be one or more tropical skin diseases, probably mostly filarial elephantiasis.^[2] Georges describes the skin as becoming spotted and hard like an elephant's.^[9] Pliny the Elder recorded that it had not occurred in Italy before the time of Pompey the Great.^[7] Late medical writers kept it, with the by-form elephantiosis,^[8][9] and medieval writers used it as a name for leprosy.^[10] English took the word over in the 1580s.^[6]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus writes the word in Greek letters.^[7][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it often.^[8][4]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it, also as elephantiosis.^[8][9][4]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus gives a chapter on the disease.^[7][4]
• 1580s – English borrows it.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Elephantiasis, a serious skin disease like leprosy.^[2][8][9]
2. (Medieval Latin) Leprosy.^[10]

Related words

• elephas
• English elephantiasis

Usage notes

The disease was also called elephas, elephantia and elephanticus morbus; a person suffering from it was elephantiacus or elephantiosus.^[8] The quantity of the penultimate syllable is uncertain.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften