gumma
/ˈɡʌmə
/noun (plural gummas or gummata /ˈɡʌmətə/) Medicine
A small soft swelling which is characteristic of the late stages of syphilis and occurs in the connective tissue of the liver, brain, testes, and heart.Many patients advance to tertiary syphilis with cardiac, neurologic, and cutaneous gummas, which are painless nodules, asymmetrically distributed in groups on the face and trunk....
- If you have late syphilis, you may develop gummas (say: gum-mahs).
Derivatives
gummatous
- Tertiary or late syphilis is classified into gummatous syphilis, cardiovascular syphilis, and neurosyphilis.
- Even without a confirmatory rapid plasma reagin test or darkfield examination of the gummatous discharge, the diagnosis of secondary syphilis was obvious.
Origin
Early 18th century: modern Latin, from Latin gummi (see gum1).
- needle-sharp
- needle-shell
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- needle-spar
- needle spray
- needless
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- needle-stick
- needlestone
- needletail
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- turn the other cheek
- turn the scales
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- turn to ashes in one's mouth