syphilis
This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:48. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Forms
syphilis f (genitive syphilidis); third declension[1]
Etymology
It is a New Latin coinage of the physician Girolamo Fracastoro, from the name of the shepherd Syphilus, the supposed first sufferer from the disease in his poem of 1530, “Syphilis, or the French Disease”.[2][1] Why he chose the name is unknown: it may be meant as Latinized Greek for “pig-lover”, and a derivation from the Greek for “with” and “loving” is the other usual conjecture;[2] Ovid also has a Sipylus, a son of Niobe.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
It appears in the title of Fracastoro's poem of 1530, “Syphilis, or the French Disease”.[2][1]
Semantic evolution
Fracastoro first used it as a general name of the disease in his treatise De contagione of 1546.[2] English took it over in 1718.[2]
Timeline
- 1530 – Fracastoro publishes his poem Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus.[2][1]
- 1546 – Fracastoro uses it as the name of the disease in De contagione.[2]
- 1718 – English borrows it as syphilis.[2]