shingles, n. pl.
(ˈʃɪŋg(ə)lz)
Also 4 schingles, 5 cingules, sengles, 5–6 shyngles, 6 chingles.
[Representing med.L. cingulus (MS. gloss in Du Cange), var. of cingulum girdle, used to render Gr. ζώνη or ζωστήρ in the medical sense.]
An eruptive disease (Herpes zoster) often extending round the middle of the body like a girdle (whence the name); usually accompanied by violent neuralgic pain.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xciii. (Tollem. MS.), Aȝens icchynge and scabbes wett and drye and aȝens schingles [Bodley MS. cingules, ed. 1495 shyngles]. c 1450 M.E. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 78 Ther ys an euel, þat men callen þe sengles. 1527 Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters G ij, The onnatural hete named shyngles on the bodye. 1546 T. Phaer Bk. Childr. Bb viij b, Our Englysshe women call it the fyre of Saynt Anthonye, or chingles. 1614 W. B. Philos. Banquet (ed. 2) 86 The oyle of Nuttes..helpes the shingles. 1712 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 10 May, The doctors said that they never saw anything so odd of the kind; they were not properly shingles, but herpes miliaris, and twenty other hard names. 1782 W. Heberden Comm. xxiii. (1806) 126 The herpes, or shingles..consists of a heap of watery bladders. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 618 On hearing that it is the ‘shingles’ and that it is not catching. |
b. A similar disease in horses.
| 1639 T. de la Grey Compl. Horsem. 74 This disease is also called by some the shingles in a horse. 1725 Bradley's Fam. Dict., St. Anthony's Fire, a Disease Horses are subject to,..call'd by some the Shingles. |