lues

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a common venereal disease caused by the treponema pallidum spirochete; symptoms change through progressive stages; can be congenital (transmitted through the placenta)

From Latin lues (“plague”).

Perhaps, indeed, your disorder may be oedematous, or gouty, or it may be the lues venerea: If you have any reason to flatter yourself it is this last, sir, I will undertake to cure you with three small pills, even if the disease should have attained its utmost inveteracy. — The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, T. (Tobias) Smollett
’Tis said the great came from America; Perhaps it may set out on its return,— The population there so spreads, they say ’Tis grown high time to thin it in its turn, With war, or plague, or famine, any way, So that civilisation they may learn; And which in ravage the more loathsome evil is— Their real lues, or our pseudo-syphilis? — Don Juan, George Gordon Byron, Baron Byron

syphilis, syph, pox, lues venerea

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