nouna disease, chiefly transmitted by sexual intercourse, caused by infection with the microorganism Treponema pallidum: characterized by an ulcerating chancre, usually on the genitals and progressing through the lymphatic system to nearly all tissues of the body, producing serious clinical manifestations
Word origin
C18: from New Latin
Syphilis (
sive Morbus Gallicus) 'Syphilis (or the French disease)', title of a poem (1530) by G. Fracastoro, Italianphysician and poet, in which a shepherd
Syphilus is portrayed as the first person to have the disease