Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Psoriasis
/səˈraɪəsɪs/noun
A chronic immune-driven skin disease producing raised red plaques covered in silvery scale.
The Greek roots
ψώρα
psṓra
itch, mange, scurf
Literally: “an itching”
Follow a root:ψώρα1 word
The story of the word
Galen used ψωρίασις for a scaly condition of the eyelids that was probably not this disease at all. For centuries psoriasis was filed with leprosy, and sufferers were treated accordingly. Robert Willan separated the two in 1808 by describing the lesions carefully, and Ferdinand von Hebra settled the modern name in 1841.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → New Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1680s
Same family
psoriaticpsora
In a sentence
Cold dry weather sets off his psoriasis every January.