# List off your favorite old-timey disease names! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 9, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010 "2003-12-09T20:57:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/1 "2003-12-09T20:57:57Z")
Having been diagnosed with lumbago a few years back and having apparently had a brush with pleurisy earlier this year, I got to wanting to collect some more old-timey sounding disease names. Couple of things please: Real diseases only; and Not looking for comedy names for diseases (i.e. 30 different joke names for the runs) Especially cool would be diseases people still actually get but maybe have a “scientific” name now. Some of my other favorites are dropsy, impetago, vertigo/the spins, ricketts, scurvey and “the vapors.” ---
**Author:** ![Potter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Potter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Potter)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/2 "2003-12-09T21:21:33Z")
Darn. Came in specifically to say I had pleurisy once. Poop. All my other diseases have been quite boring. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/3 "2003-12-09T21:24:27Z")
Consumption. “A disease afflicting operatic sopranos in the role of Mimi in _La Bohème_. The audience is forced to accept that a 200-pound woman who sings for four hours is wasting away.” ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/4 "2003-12-09T21:29:59Z")
Consumption… what exactly does it do? It sounds very romantic and tragic (thanks to the Victorian era “period” movies and novels) but really… what the heck does it do? There’s a cough(?) and a loss of appetite but what else? I know TB has those two symptoms so I am a wee bit confused. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/5 "2003-12-09T21:31:11Z")
Not to hijack, but I’ve heard of Lumbago, what is it? ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/6 "2003-12-09T21:35:06Z")
I got tested for Diptheria once. Isn’t there one called “Berri Berri” or something? ---
**Author:** ![beegirl13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@beegirl13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beegirl13)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/7 "2003-12-09T21:39:52Z")
Dysentary (what exactly was this?) and the dreaded apoplexy (stroke). Too bad I can’t remember what other diseases you could die from in the old Oregon Trail game. Those had some good names. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/8 "2003-12-09T21:51:52Z")
“Consumption” is tuberculosis. Dysentery is an intestinal inflammation, sometimes but not always an infection. I love the sound of “lumbago”, which is pain in the lumbar region of the back. Beriberi is a disease found primarily in Southeast Asia, where a diet high in polished (white) rice leads to thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, with some very nasty results. The word “beriberi” in Singhalese means “I cannot”, meaning the person is too ill to do anything. A very old term is “the megrims”, meaning a migraine headache. ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/9 "2003-12-09T21:52:31Z")
Cholera but it’s coming back, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Alto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Alto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alto)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/10 "2003-12-09T22:04:25Z")
How about “putrid fever,” now known as typhus. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/11 "2003-12-09T22:08:55Z")
The croup. Beats the hell outta me what it is but the name’s way cool. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/12 "2003-12-09T22:09:42Z")
Gout Dyspepsia Ague Oh hey, I found [a whole list of 'em here](http://www.vyger.fsnet.co.uk/Information/Old_illness_s/body_old_illness_s.html). ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/13 "2003-12-09T22:16:35Z")
My dad had scarlet fever as a kid. I haven’t heard of anyone having that for some time. Women used to get “the curse”, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a disease. ---
**Author:** ![Murcielago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/14 "2003-12-09T22:18:02Z")
Hyperthyroidism was once called “Cretinism.” ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/15 "2003-12-09T22:18:48Z")
Neurasthenia. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/16 "2003-12-09T22:31:27Z")
Salon’s article on [archaic disease names](http://archive.salon.com/health/col/roac/1999/07/02/merck_manual/): > [@](#): > > Where once we had scrofula and gleet and dropsy, now we have superventricular tachyarrhythmia and glossopharyngeal neuralgia…Gone are quinsy, tetter, glanders and farcy, pemphigus and wen. So long, exuberant granulations and cerebral softening. Fare-thee-well, fatty heart and hectic fever. What we gain in descriptive precision, we lose in charm. Perusing John Graunt’s 1662 _Bills of Mortality_ reveals such gems as King’s Evil, Meagrom, and my favorite, Sodainly – uh, what is that, a Three Stooges affliction? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/17 "2003-12-09T22:53:04Z")
megrims. essentially, depression. Apoplexy ( sp?) would be the current name of stroke. convulsions or fits = epilespsy. Prone to wheeziness or weak lungs = asthma Somethin’ ain’t quite right with that boy = mentally impaired/autism ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/18 "2003-12-09T22:54:13Z")
I was always under the thought that **consumption** was cancer. Don’t forget about the romance of polio. (Not) ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/19 "2003-12-09T23:03:55Z")
Amoebic dysentary was once called “the bloody flux”. Such poetry. One of the symptoms of beriberi is extreme water retention. I read an account of Nick Rowe, an American POW who was held in Vietnam for five years. All the other men captured with him slowly deteriorated until they looked like walking skeletons, but for reasons he couldn’t explain, Rowe still looked healthy. One day a doctor came into the camp to examine the prisoners. When the doctor inspected Rowe, he diagnosed him with beriberi, and gave him an injection. A little while later, he felt the very strong urge to urinate. He made it to the latrine and uninated non-stop for quite some time. When the flow finally stopped, he looked just as skeletonized as his companions. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/20 "2003-12-09T23:12:08Z")
Cancer was “wasting disease.” The Grippe was influenza. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010.md?page=2)