‖ lupus
(ˈl(j)uːpəs)
[L. = wolf.]
† 1. A wolf. Obs.
| 1583 Leg. Bp. St. Androis 6 God forwairns you..To ken the lupus in a lamb skyn lappit. |
2. The wolf, a southern constellation situated to the south of Scorpio, and joined to Centaur.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Lupus,..a Southern Constellation. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIV. 203/1 Lupus (the Wolf), one of the old constellations. |
3. The pike or luce.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Lupus,..the Pike, or Sturgeon, a Fish. 1854 Badham Halieut. 42 Sluggish mugils and the voracious lupus should be selected as easy to rear. |
4. a. An ulcerous disease of the skin, sometimes erosive, sometimes hypertrophous.
| [c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 208 Summen clepen it cancrum, & summen lupum.] 1590 P. Barrough Meth. Physick 331 Lupus is a malignant vlcer quickly consuming the neather parts; and it is very hungry like vnto a woolfe. 1693 Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Lupus, a sort of Canker in the Thighs and Legs. 1818–20 E. Thompson Cullen's Nosol. Method. (ed. 3) 333 Lupus: Noli Me Tangere. 1876 Trans. Clinical Soc. IX. 165 The comparatively rare..sebaceous Lupus or Bat's-wing disease. 1897 W. Anderson Surg. Treat. Lupus 1 Lupus is still as defiant as in the dark ages. |
| attrib. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 685 The lupus patients treated by tuberculin. 1900 J. Hutchinson in Archives Surg. XI. 52 The lupus scar. Ibid. 53 The form of cancer..is very like lupus cancer. Ibid. 218 Lupus patches. |
b. Used in various
mod.L. (or sometimes Englished) collocations to designate various forms and manifestations of
lupus vulgaris or to designate various other skin diseases:
lupus erythematosus [
tr. F.
lupus érythémateux (Casenave 1850, in
Gaz. des Hôpitaux 27 July 354/3): see erythematous a.], a disease which is now considered to be manifested in two related forms, that of chronic discoid
lupus erythematosus, which
usu. involves only the skin and causes scaly red patches to form
esp. on the face, and that of systemic
lupus erythematosus, which produces a similar skin condition but involves the connective tissues generally and is attended by widespread symptoms of illness,
esp. fever, malaise, and arthralgia;
lupus vulgaris, a tuberculous disease of the skin, characterized by the formation of brownish nodules;
= lupus 4.
| 1852 Med. Times & Gaz. XXVI. 141 (heading) Treatment of lupus exedens. 1857 Lancet 1 Aug. 116/2 (heading) Horrible deformity from lupus vorax. 1860 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. LXII. 462 In lupus vulgaris it [sc. a liquid remedy] is seldom used, but in lupus erythematosus it may be considered a true specific. 1878 Lancet 13 July 35/1 (heading) Clincial lecture on disseminated follicular lupus. 1883 Med. Chron. (Baltimore) I. 271 (heading) Notes of a case of erythematous lupus complicated by the tubercular syphiloderm. 1947 Sci. News IV. 106 Tuberculosis can attack not only the lungs but also most other parts of the body—bones and joints, kidneys, glands, brain, and skin. In the last mentioned the disease is known under the Latin name of Lupus vulgaris. 1966 Wright & Symmers Systemic Path. II. xxxix. 1547 In systemic lupus erythematosus the skin manifestations are merely part of a much more widespread disorder. 1974 Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xxxi. 47/2 Lupus vulgaris most commonly begins in childhood. |