Medical Meanings: Names of Diseases Quiz

Answer: cancer

Cancer is the Latin word for "crab". Ancient physicians used the word to refer to malignant tumours because they observed that the behaviour of a crab was similar to the "behaviour" of a malignant tumour. Just as a crab grabs its prey and does not let go, malignant tumours are also very tenacious as they invade the body's tissues, leading to inevitable death.

Answer: leprosy

The name leprosy comes from the Greek word "lepros" meaning "scaly, rough or mangy". However, it is thought that the disease which we know as leprosy today may not actually be the same disease that the ancient Greeks called leprosy. They may have been referring to psoriasis. Leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease because Gerhard Hansen, a Norwegian doctor, discovered the bacteria (Mycobacterium leprae) which caused the disease.

Answer: syphilis

Syphilis was often referred to as the "great pox" or simply "THE pox". Although smallpox was a serious disease, syphilis was considered the worse of the two.

Answer: syphilis

In 1530, Fracastoro, a doctor from Verona, published his poem "Syphilis, Sive Morbus Gallius" ("Syphilis or the French Disease"). The poem tells the story of a shepherd called Syphilis, the first sufferer from the disease. This disease became very widespread in Europe during the 16th century, mainly due to the activities of the armies of various countries.

The English and the Germans called it "the French disease". The French called it "the Spanish pox". In Persia it was "the Turkish disease" and in Russia "the Polish disease".

In short, each country named and blamed some other country for the spread of this dreadful disease.

Answer: malaria

The name malaria comes from the Italian words "mal" (bad) and "aria" (air). It is believed to have been coined by an Italian doctor, Francisco Torti, in the 18th century. It was commonly believed that people contracted malaria by breathing the foul air around swamps and marshes.

In fact, the disease is caused by microscopic animal parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium which is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Another name for malaria is ague.

Answer: mumps

Mumps is an infection of the parotid glands which are located in the face, near the ears. There are a number of theories concerning the origin of the name "mumps". Some think it is derived from the Icelandic word "mumpa" (to eat greedily, to fill the mouth too full).

Others think it comes from an Old English verb "to mump" (to appear sulky or sullen). Both refer to the fact that a patient with mumps usually exhibits facial swelling, particularly around the lower half of the face.

Answer: leprosy

Despite the fact that leprosy contains the word "rosy", its name has nothing to do with "red". The name leprosy comes from the Greek word "lepros" meaning "scaly, rough or mangy". Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is derived from the Latin "scarletum" meaning red. Rubella comes from the Latin "rubellus" meaning reddish. Rubeola comes from the Latin "rubeolus", also meaning reddish.

These three diseases are all characterised by a red rash.

Answer: typhoid

The name typhoid literally means "like typhus". The term was coined by a French physician, Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis, in 1829. Before this time, the two diseases were often mistaken for each other. Typhus is caused by a group of organisms called Rickettsia. Typhoid is caused by a bacterium called Salmonella typhi. It is also known as enteric fever.

Answer: herpes

The medical term "herpes" is derived from the Greek "herpein" (to creep). It refers to the way the skin eruption tends to spread slowly around the middle of the torso when the herpes zoster virus manifests itself as shingles. The herpes zoster virus also causes chicken pox. Herpes simplex viruses cause cold sores (fever blisters) and genital herpes.

Answer: chickenpox

Varicella is the correct name for chickenpox. It is Latin for "tiny spot". You don't catch chickenpox from chickens (although you do catch cowpox from cows). This relatively mild disease was given the name chickenpox in the 18th century to distinguish it from smallpox, a much more serious disease. "Chicken" was meant to imply weak or petty (such as in expressions like chicken out, chicken-hearted or chicken-feed).