impetigo

Forms

impetīgō f (genitive impetīginis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is usually taken as from Latin impetō (“to attack”) + -īgō.^[1][2][3] The OLD and the TLL compare dēpetīgō, a word for a similar eruption.^[4][5] Serenus Sammonicus already explained the disease as named after its onset, impetus.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus is the first author L&S and Georges cite, for a chronic scaly eruption of the skin.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word was a general name for several kinds of scaly or scabby skin eruption in people and animals;^[4][2][3] Pliny the Elder and Columella use it in the plural for scabby patches.^[4][2][3] Pliny also applied it to a disease of the bark of fig trees.^[4][2] It remained in use in Late Latin medicine and in Christian Latin, glossed as dry scurf.^[7]

English took it over in the late 14th century for a pustular skin disease, a sense later narrowed to particular diseases.^[8]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus describes the skin eruption.^[2][3][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses the plural for scabby patches on animals.^[2][3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder applies it to a disease of fig trees.^[4][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as impetigo.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scaly or scabby eruption of the skin, a name for several such diseases.^[4][2][3]
2. A disease of the bark of fig trees.^[4][2]

Related words

• impetus
• English impetigo

Usage notes

It is also spelled inpetīgō.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com