Archaic Medical Terminology Trivia Quiz

Answer: malaria

Ague is an Old French word meaning acute fever. Ague is in turn derived from the Latin "acuta", meaning sharp. Ague entered the English language around the 13th century to describe a sharp, sudden fever, later specifically referring to malaria and other illnesses with alternating fever and chills.

Malaria is derived from the Latin malus (bad) and aria (air), because it was believed that "bad air" caused the illness. It was noted that the disease was common in swampy areas but the role of the mosquito as a vector for the parasite was unknown. The disease was known as "marsh fever". The word malaria entered the English language in the 18th century and is the term used today instead of ague.

Answer: stroke

A stroke is a medical event where blood flow is blocked, or a blood vessel ruptures, preventing oxygen from reaching the brain. Depending upon where this occurs, symptoms may vary; they may include inability to walk or talk, paralysis (typically on one side of the body), confusion, dizziness, vision problems, facial drooping, severe headache and possibly death.

An old-fashioned term for stroke is apoplexy, a word which originated with Hippocrates and is derived from the Greek "apoplektikos" which means "seizure, struck down" and reflected the belief that sudden disability was a result of being struck down by the gods.

Apoplexy began to be replaced by the term stroke in the 1950s. The correct medical terminology today is cerebrovascular accident or CVA. The word accident is a reference to the sudden, unforeseen nature of the event.

Answer: syphilis

The name syphilis is derived from a poem by a doctor from Verona, Girolamo Fracastoro (1483-1553), called "Syphilis, or the French Disease", published in 1530. The poem tells the story of a shepherd named Syphilus, supposedly the first person to suffer from the disease. Dr Fracastoro first used the word syphilis as a generic term for the disease in his 1546 essay "De Contagione".

The fictional Syphilus, of course, was not the first sufferer. The disease was first recognised as a specific disease in about 1495 following an epidemic in Europe. It is generally believed that Christopher Columbus's crew brought it back from the Americas but this is debatable.

The term "smallpox" was first used in England in about 1510 to distinguish the disease from syphilis, which was then known as the "great pox" or simply "the pox". There were two main reasons for the distinction. Smallpox lesions were smaller than syphilitic lesions and, although smallpox was a serious disease, syphilis was considered the worse of the two.

There are many other archaic medical terms which refer to syphilis. In the 1500's, the Latin term "lues venerea" or simply "lues" (which translates as "venereal plague or blight") was coined. It was also called the bane of Venus, and Cupid's or Venus's disease referring to its sexual mode of transmission.

Syphilis was also known by many names reflecting prejudice based on nationality. The English and the Germans called it the French disease. The French and Dutch called it the Spanish pox. The Poles called it the German disease. In Persia it was the Turkish disease and in Russia, the Polish disease. The Turks called it the Christian disease. In short, each country named and blamed some other country for the spread of this disease.

Answer: alcoholism

Dipsomania, a craving for alcohol, was coined in the early 19th century. It is derived from the Greek "dipsa" (thirst) and "mania" (madness). A sufferer was known as a dipsomaniac and the condition was considered as a form of insanity. The terms alcoholism and alcoholic followed shortly thereafter, towards the end of the 19th century.

The correct medical terminology today, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), is Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The DSM-5 is a universal standardised tool for physicians to use to classify and diagnose mental disorders.

Answer: tuberculosis

The disease that we call tuberculosis today was formerly known as consumption from about the late 14th century. Its name reflected the fact that the body appeared to be consumed by the disease and is derived from the Latin "consumptionem" meaning "a using up, wasting". It was also known as phthisis, the Greek word for the same. Symptoms included weight loss, visible wasting of fat and muscle, fatigue and coughing up of blood. In its acute phase, it was known as "galloping consumption".

In about 70% of cases, tuberculosis affects the lungs (pulmonary tuberculosis). However, the bacterium can spread through the bloodstream to affect almost any part of the body.

The term tuberculosis was coined in 1834 by Johann Lukas Schonlein, a German physician, to describe the characteristic nodules called tubercles, from the Latin "tuberculum" meaning lump or swelling. Tuberculosis is the current medical term.

Answer: tetanus

Tetanus is a disease that was recognised and described by Hippocrates and called "tetanos", a Greek word meaning rigid or tension, a reference to its main symptom of severe spasming and involuntary tightening of the jaw muscles that prevents the mouth from opening.

The alternative and descriptive term "lockjaw" for this disease arose in the 18th century. The discovery of the causative agent, a bacterium called Clostridium tetani, in 1884 caused a gradual shift from lockjaw back to the original name of tetanus.

Answer: tonsillitis

Quinsy is an archaic word that was used to describe severe tonsillitis (infection or inflammation of the tonsils) with formation of an abscess. It causes a very sore throat and in severe cases it makes breathing and eating difficult. As a result, the Ancient Greeks called it "kynankhe" which literally means "dog-choking", a picturesque description indicating that a sufferer behaved like a dog with rabies.

As the Greek word passed through Latin, Old French and Middle English, it evolved into the word quinsy. Its usage dates back to the 14th century whereas the medical term tonsillitis was first documented in 1801. Today, both words are used but they actually have slightly different meanings. Tonsillitis refers to general inflammation of the tonsils, while quinsy specifically refers to the resulting abscess. The preferred medical term for quinsy is peritonsillar abscess.

Answer: oedema/edema

Dropsy is defined as an abnormal accumulation or retention of watery fluid in the body's tissues, causing swelling, commonly in the legs, feet, arms or hands. Rather than being a medical condition in itself, it is a classic sign of an underlying medical condition (such as congestive heart failure, kidney failure, cirrhosis of the liver, or deep vein thrombosis).

Dropsy is derived from the Greek word "hydrops", meaning water or watery liquid, and is a word which has been in use since the time of Hippocrates. It was replaced by the current term oedema during the 20th century. Oedema is derived from the Greek "oidema", meaning a swelling or tumor. The American spelling is edema.

Answer: rabies

Rabies is a disease caused by the rabies virus which primarily affects dogs but can be transmitted to humans if bitten. It is also described as acute viral encephalomyelitis because the virus causes inflammation (-itis) of the brain (encephal/o) and spinal cord (myel-). Rabies is a Latin word meaning rage or madness and the disease was well-known to ancient civilisations.

Hydrophobia is Greek for "fear of water" and refers to one of the classic signs of the disease, the painful spasming of the throat when attempting to drink. For this reason, sufferers would avoid drinking and this behaviour was misinterpreted as fear of water. The inability to swallow leads to a build-up of saliva which presents as "foaming at the mouth", another classic sign. Other symptoms range from the initial fever, headache, fatigue and a sore throat, progressing to the fear of swallowing and saliva build-up, to paralysis, coma and death.

The disease was known as rabies from the 1st century AD. The term hydrophobia arose in medieval times but by the 17th century the term rabies was re-established and is the term we use today.

Answer: meningitis/encephalitis

Encephalitis is the correct medical terminology for an infection or inflammation of the brain. The characteristic symptoms are rapid onset of confusion, personality and behavioural changes, and seizures.

The brain is covered by three layers of membrane, collectively known as the meninges. Meningitis is infection or inflammation of the meninges. The characteristic symptoms are a stiff neck, high fever, and severe headache.

The archaic term "brain fever" was used to describe both conditions, although the signs and symptoms are distinctly different. The term appears to have originated in the early 1800's, and was very popular during the Victorian era, particularly in Victorian literature. The term "brain fever" was phased out of medical literature during the 20th century and was replaced with the more precise terminology of meningitis or encephalitis.