Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A form of tuberculosis affecting the lymph nodes, especially of the neck, that is most common in children and is usually spread by unpasteurized milk from infected cows.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A constitutional disorder, especially in the young, expressing itself in lymphadenitis, especially glandular swellings in the neck, with a tendency to cheesy degeneration, inflammations of various joints, mucous membranes, and other structures, together with other less distinct indications of feeble health.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A constitutional disease, generally hereditary, especially manifested by chronic enlargement and cheesy degeneration of the lymphatic glands, particularly those of the neck, and marked by a tendency to the development of chronic intractable inflammations of the skin, mucous membrane, bones, joints, and other parts, and by a diminution in the power of resistance to disease or injury and the capacity for recovery. Scrofula is now generally held to be tuberculous in character, and may develop into general or local tuberculosis (consumption).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of tuberculosis, most common in children, tending to cause enlarged and degenerated lymph glands, especially in the neck, and often chronic, intractable skin inflammation as well.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a form of tuberculosis characterized by swellings of the lymphatic glands

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English scrophula, from Late Latin scrōfulae, swelling of the glands, diminutive of Latin scrōfa, sow; see sker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin diminutive of scrofa: a breeding sow, because swine were supposed to be subject to the complaint; or by fanciful comparison of the glandular swellings to little pigs.

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Examples

  • Her children have diseases of the eyes, skin, glands and bones, and the doctor will apply the term scrofula, when the result is nothing more or less than inherited syphilis.

    Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners A Complete Sexual Science and a Guide to Purity and Physical Manhood, Advice To Maiden, Wife, And Mother, Love, Courtship, And Marriage B.G. Jefferis

  • Her children have diseases of the eyes, skin, glands and bones, and the doctor will apply the term scrofula, when the result is nothing more or less than inherited syphilis.

    Searchlights on Health The Science of Eugenics B. G. Jefferis

  • Lymphatic tuberculosis, TB of the lymph glands, was called scrofula, from the Latin word for “piglet,” evoking the rather morbid image of a chain of swollen glands arranged in a line like a group of suckling pigs.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • Lymphatic tuberculosis, TB of the lymph glands, was called scrofula, from the Latin word for “piglet,” evoking the rather morbid image of a chain of swollen glands arranged in a line like a group of suckling pigs.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • Lymphatic tuberculosis, TB of the lymph glands, was called scrofula, from the Latin word for “piglet,” evoking the rather morbid image of a chain of swollen glands arranged in a line like a group of suckling pigs.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • If gondola were a disease, and if a scrofula were a beautiful boat peculiar to a beautiful city, the effect of each word would be exactly the reverse of what it is.

    Yet Again Max Beerbohm 1914

  • Prof. Gross says: 'What is called scrofula, struma, or tuberculosis, is, I have long been satisfied from careful observation of the sick and a profound study of the literature of the subject, in a great majority of cases, if not invariably, merely syphilis in its more remote stages.'

    Plain Facts for Old and Young John Harvey Kellogg 1897

  • Prof. Gross says: ` What is called scrofula, struma, or tuberculosis, is, I have long been satisfied from careful observation of the sick and a profound study of the literature of the subject, in a great majority of cases, if not invariably, merely syphilis in its more remote stages. '

    Plain facts for old and young : embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life. 1877

  • There is a certain disease called the scrofula, which in former times had the name of the King's Evil.

    Charles I Makers of History Jacob Abbott 1841

  • The oil is used for skin diseases such as scrofula, indolent ulcers, and ringworm.

    7 Medicinals 1992

Comments

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  • ""Somewhere in Scotland," he said bitterly. "And meanwhile, Gilchrist is sending Kivrin into a century which is clearly a ten, a century which had scrofula and the plague and burned Joan of Arc at the stake.""

    Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, p 5

    May 23, 2010

  • There were kings who could rub the heads of serfs and cure scrofula - the origin of "the royal touch."

    Off the Road by Jack Hitt p93

    January 3, 2012