# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/101 "2010-07-16T08:50:01Z")
I’m 31 years old, and on my baby immunization chart I recall seeing a “rubella” shot noted…isn’t that related to the mumps? Or am I nuts? And when did they stop immunizing for polio? Isn’t that the shot that left a scar on your arm? (Note–this is a minor hijack related to the OP, NOT a question about whether or not immunizations are good or bad!) And I’ve heard gout mentioned in modern terms; I wasn’t aware it was an obsolete term. Even though I don’t really know what it is, other than references in old books that mention people who are prone to gout shouldn’t eat certain heavy foods… ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/102 "2010-07-16T10:06:26Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > I’m 31 years old, and on my baby immunization chart I recall seeing a “rubella” shot noted…isn’t that related to the mumps? Or am I nuts? And when did they stop immunizing for polio? Isn’t that the shot that left a scar on your arm? (Note–this is a minor hijack related to the OP, NOT a question about whether or not immunizations are good or bad!) > > And I’ve heard gout mentioned in modern terms; I wasn’t aware it was an obsolete term. Even though I don’t really know what it is, other than references in old books that mention people who are prone to gout shouldn’t eat certain heavy foods… measles/mumps/rubella is a standard combination vaccine. They still give polio vaccines, we have a ways to go before we match the success of small pox, that’s the one that leaves a scar and has been stopped. According to wiki, at least 300 million people died of small pox in the 20th century alone before it was wiped out. Gout is not an obsolete term. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/103 "2010-07-16T11:16:29Z")
[Per new policies,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7697100#post7697100)zombieism is no longer a disease, so I’m leaving this open. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/104 "2010-07-16T11:25:26Z")
I think I am correct in saying Panama Fever is now officially Dengue Fever, but is sometimes called Breakbone Fever. Nasty stuff, that is. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/105 "2010-07-16T12:08:43Z")
How about these: -rising of the lights -pestilent pox -undulent fever -scrapie ---
**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:** [July 16, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/106 "2010-07-16T14:24:34Z")
Rubella is also known as German Measles. [Yaws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaws) I had never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/107 "2010-07-16T15:10:31Z")
> [@quiltguy154](#): > > Don’t forget _quinsy_ and it’s-gotta’- be-bad-cause-it-sounds-bad _scrofula_. Scrofula is what my mom calls any kind of dermatitis (knowing its wrong, she just likes the sound of it) > [@Caricci](#): > > Here’s what I like to do to make anything sound old-timey: I add the word “the” at the beginning. My husband, a social worker, says he was ready to kill me when discussing a client in a case meeting and he accidentally mentioned that the child’s grandmother had “the” alzheimers. After reading the whole thread I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned the rheumatism. When she was disgnosed with Type 2 Diabetes my great aunt (b. 1914) reported that she had “a touch of the sugar” From old medicine ads I am aware that people used to suffer from “liver complaint”. My great grandmother (b.1887) was diagnosed as a young girl with “Bright’s Disease”. I understand that the same exact condition now would be called “kidney disease”, boring. > [@kimfair](#): > > bradyspermatism - absence of ejaculatory force Makes ya wonder why Mr. Brady got singled out. Maybe he didn’t pay his doctor bills. While I was typing it occured to me that people my age used to have “swolen glands” as an excuse in their absence notes. My mom used to feel around my jaw to check my glands (if I had a cold, not random gland check). I’ve never done this to my son and have no idea what I’d be looking for anyway. ---
**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:** [July 16, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/108 "2010-07-16T16:31:14Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > An epizootic is an epidemic among animals – _zoon_ (animal) instead of _demos_ (people). > > I remember reading that at one particular period (the thirties?) there was a severe epizootic in some area of the United States, and the word was bandied about enough that “the epazutics” or some similar phonetic alteration came to mean “some unspecified ailment” (or as my grandfather would say, “diaplupus of the plux”). [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5526615&postcount=18) where I saw it on the boards originally. ---
**Author:** ![Rafe\_Hollister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Rafe\_Hollister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rafe_Hollister)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/109 "2010-07-16T17:03:09Z")
Something was going around back in 1997 or so called “The Macarena”. It swept across the country and infected many millions of people. May God have mercy on their souls. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/110 "2010-07-16T20:21:17Z")
Sufferers of Angelman Syndrome exhibit hand-flapping, smiling, laughing, and a happy demeanor. For this reason, it used to be known as **Happy Puppet Syndrome.** mmm ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/111 "2010-07-16T20:49:38Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Does anybody get catarrh anymore? mostly pirates. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/112 "2010-07-16T21:17:22Z")
When I was interested in ragtime piano, I read a lot of material about Scott Joplin and other composers of the era, many of whom made the rounds of the bordellos when they were young, and contracted syphilis in the process. Later in life, this could manifest itself as horrific physical and mental degeneration which they sometimes called the “rales”. James Lileks, in his [marvelous website](http://www.lileks.com/motels/AL/2.html)–the absolute, premier online source for fondly ironic nostalgia, bar none–suggests _the grimes_, as a name for how you feel after a long day on the road. “Yee-up, been driving from Port Arthur since 5am and I sure got me the grimes!” Indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/113 "2010-07-16T21:33:44Z")
Highly contagious - The Lurgy. [World Wide Words: Dreaded lurgi](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dre1.htm) “The disease is also known in Australia and New Zealand, but all Americans seem to be inoculated against it at birth, since it’s virtually unknown to them (but then, they have cooties instead).” ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/114 "2010-07-16T22:20:51Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Consumption was once a “fashionable” disease, as it was believed that artists and other sensitive types were particularly prone to it. There were perfectly healthy people who cultivated a “consumptive” style. Pretty bizzare. Sounds like the 17th-century version of “heroin chic”. > [@Mr.Babbington](#): > > I can’t believe no one has mentioned gout yet. Henry VIII had it. It must be cool. I have a friend who has gout. It’s not fun. It’s inflammation of the joints caused by a buildup of uric acid ion the blood. Yes, he overate at the time… I always used to confuse gout with goitre, which is a swollen thyroid gland. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/115 "2010-07-17T07:22:08Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > As a humorous music dictionary said, this is the disease supposed to afflict operatic sopranos in the role of Mimi in _La Bohème_; the audience is asked to accept that a 200-pound woman who sings for four hours is wasting away. As you yourself said in this very thread seven years ago. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/116 "2010-07-17T09:42:12Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > mostly pirates. Wrong: a Catara is a late model Cadillac, it hasn’t been sold since 1999, or so. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/117 "2010-07-17T12:08:55Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Hey! I always thought the vapors was the farts. > > Learn something new every day. No its the compulsive urge to masturbate while speaking Nihongo! ---
**Author:** ![gang\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f07891/32.png) [@gang\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gang_green)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/118 "2010-07-17T16:55:18Z")
[Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_spotted_fever) - tick rickets. Ew. Love to say “catarrh.” Catarrrrrh. Ca-TAAAAARRRRRH! Glad to know where “epizoodics” comes from. It’s long been a term in my family for a vague “ew, icky, creepy, jumpy” sensation. ---
**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:** [July 17, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/119 "2010-07-17T17:43:15Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > As you yourself said in this very thread seven years ago. 😛 Oh, for pity’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/120 "2010-07-17T17:48:14Z")
And don’t forget running amok, an Indonesian mental illness charactarized by indescriminate violent behavior. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010.md?page=7)