Old Names for Illnesses

What old illness names actually mean

Parish registers — much like our grandparents' family charts — tend to record more or less every possible detail about a deceased person. Besides the date of death or burial, you'll often find information on surviving relatives (children/spouse), occupation, and the cause of death or illness. That's certainly helpful, but it also means we have to get to grips with the meaning of old illness names. That's why I've researched a few "translations" online for this page.

The archaic medical terminology found in old records often referred to the symptoms of an illness rather than the illness itself. Take, for example, the term "Engbrüstigkeit" ("tight-chestedness") for asthma. As we'd describe asthma today, it's typically marked by breathlessness, coughing and a feeling of tightness in the chest — so the symptoms can often be matched up to illnesses known today.

You'll also come across many Latin illness terms. Cachexia (or "Kachexie") still means exactly what it did then: wasting, or pathological weight loss, accompanied by loss of appetite and strength — a symptom of many serious conditions such as anorexia, cancer, or metabolic disorders.

Meaning of Old Medical Terms

A
Abzehrung — wasting away, possibly tuberculosis
Aeres — rash
Andreas-Krankheit ("Andrew's disease") — gout
Anmal — spots from a contagious illness
Arme Krankheit ("poor man's disease") — epilepsy
Aufblähen — colic, swelling
Aussatz — leprosy

B
Beutelmann — fever, chills
Blärr — ulcer, pox
Blatter — smallpox, skin disease
Blauer Husten ("blue cough") — whooping cough (breathlessness, bluish skin colour)
Brustbräune — heart attack

C
Cachexia — tuberculosis, loss of strength, wasting
Cancer, Carcinoma — cancer

D
Debilitas — weakness
Dörrsucht — tuberculosis
Durchlauf — diarrhoea, dysentery

E
Elend ("misery") — epilepsy
Emissio — plague
Engbrüstigkeit — asthma
Englische Krankheit ("English disease") — rickets

F
Faulfieber — typhus
Fäule — ulcer, cancer
Febris — fever
Fleckfieber — typhus
Fluß — stroke
Französische Krankheit ("French disease") — syphilis

G
Gallfieber — typhus
Gallsucht — jaundice
Geschwür — tumour, wound
Gliederschwamm — cancer
Grimmen — pain

H
Halsbräune — diphtheria
Herznot — heart disease
Hitze — fever

K
Kanzer — cancer, tumour
Kinderflecken — smallpox, measles
Krupp — croup

L
Lues — pestilence, plague

M
Mania — madness
Misere — cancer

N
Nervenfieber — typhus

P
Paralysis — stroke, paralysis
Pestblattern — plague boils
Plage — plague, syphilis
Plarre — ulcer

R
Raude — skin disease
Rote Flecken — measles, rubella

S
Salzfluß — weeping skin rash
Scabies — scabies
Schlagfluß — stroke
Schwamm — cancerous tumour
Schwarzgalligkeit — melancholy, gloom
Schwulst — swelling, cancer
Stickfluß — bronchitis, asthma

T
Verzehrung — tuberculosis, senile decline
Rote Flecken — measles, rubella

Z
Zehrendes Fieber ("consuming fever") — tuberculosis
Zornkrankheit ("rage sickness") — mania
Zwang — diarrhoea

"Every generation smiles at its fathers, laughs at its grandfathers, and admires its great-grandfathers."
(William Somerset Maugham)