α. 1800s– seven years' itch.
β. 1800s– seven year itch.
seven-year itchn.
/ˌsɛvn̩jɪər ˈɪtʃ/, /ˌsɛvn̩jəːr ˈɪtʃ/, U.S. /ˌsɛvənˌjɪ(ə)r ˈɪtʃ/ colloquial.
1. U.S. With the. Any of various skin conditions causing chronic or recurrent itching, esp. scabies. Now chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > year > [noun] > period of specific number of years > condition occurring after specific number of years
seven-year itch1835
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of visible parts > skin disorders > [noun] > itching diseases > scabies or mange
itcha800
riff1579
psora1585
scrubbado1651
Scotch fiddle1675
scrub1709
scabies1813
acariasis1815
scratch1828
seven-year itch1835
scrub-itch1909
swimmer's itch1928
1835 N. Ames Old Sailor's Yarns 385 He drives one disorder out of the system by introducing another more powerful..; as for instance, he attacks pulmonary consumption with insanity, gout with the ‘seven-years-itch’, small-pox with its partial namesake.
1870 Good Health Jan. 358/1 If a patient was told he had the ‘seven years' itch’, he naturally concluded that he could not get rid of it in less than that number of years, which gave time for treatment.
1899 C. W. Chesnutt Conjure Woman 154 Lawsuits wuz slow ez de seben-yeah eetch.
1955 Sun (Baltimore) 16 May 12/7 When I was a boy we called the skin rash from poison ivy..‘the seven-year-itch’ and firmly believed that it would reappear every year for seven years.
2004 L. Schweikart & M. Allen Patriot's Hist. U.S. v. 158 Worms, insects, and parasites of every description wiggled, dug, or burrowed their way into pioneer skin, infecting it with the seven-year itch, a generic term covering scabies and crabs as well as body lice, which almost everyone suffered from.
2. Chiefly with the. An urge to be unfaithful, regarded as particularly likely to occur when one has been married for seven years; (more generally) a feeling of boredom or restlessness from being in a relationship, job, or other situation for seven years.After the title of George Axelrod's 1952 play The Seven Year Itch, which was made into a film of the same name in 1955: see quot. 1952.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > fornication, adultery, or incest > [noun] > adultery > urge towards
seven-year itch1952
1952 Billboard 29 Nov. 3/3 An awful lot of customers are going to get an awful big kick out of Tom Ewell's small amorous interlude with the gal who lives upstairs, when events conspire to give him the ‘Seven Year Itch’ after a happy marital span of a like number of years.
1959 ‘O. Mills’ Stairway to Murder xiv. 149 Lapse understood and sympathised with. It's so common they've even got a name for it. It's the seven-year itch.
1998 Homes & Ideas Mar. (Suppl.) (recto rear cover) You can easily paint or stain them to complement any decor—or change them if you feel that seven year itch.
2004 J. Naughtie Accidental American iv. 87 Although he had been in power for six years, with the seven-year-itch not far away, he had no reason to be particularly nervous.
2013 Daily Tel. 27 Sept. 12/4 Forget the seven-year itch, it's the fifth year of marriage that is the toughest, according to research.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1835