Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Herpes
/ˈhɜːpiːz/noun
A viral infection producing blisters on skin or mucous membrane.
The Greek roots
ἕρπης
hérpēs
a creeping eruption
Literally: “the creeping thing”
Follow a root:ἕρπης1 word
The story of the word
From herpein, to creep. Greek physicians applied it to any rash that spread outward across the skin, with no notion of a virus or of what caused it; the name records only how the lesion behaved. The same root, through Latin serpere, gives serpent, and through zoology gives herpetology, the study of things that crawl.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
herpetologyserpentherpetic
In a sentence
Cold sores are caused by a herpes virus that most adults already carry.