lues

[loo-eez]

noun

Pathology.

1. syphilis.

lues

/ ˈluːiːz, luːˈɛtɪk /

noun

1. any venereal disease

2. a pestilence

Other Word Forms

• luetic adjective
• luetically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of lues¹

1625–35; < New Latin, special use of Latin luēs plague, contagion

Word History and Origins

Origin of lues¹

C17: from New Latin, from Latin: calamity

Example Sentences

It is only when they have taken to bragging that the lues Napoleonica has set in.

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Wishing to avoid the lues biographica, I assumed a somewhat too purely critical attitude while writing.

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Miscarriages in a woman should arouse the suspicion of lues in her husband.

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One week later, a “special cable” to The Times told of 503 cases of illness treated with “Preparation 606” in Berlin, including “the various forms of lues,” as syphilis was then called.

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The mercury prevents ulcers from being formed under the mucous membrane, or cures them, as in the lues venerea; and the rhubarb is necessary to keep the bowels open.

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