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Saint Vitus's dance

or Saint Vi·tus' dance

[ vahy-tuh-siz ]

Saint Vitus's dance

/ ˈvaɪtəsɪz /

noun

  1. pathol a nontechnical name for Sydenham's chorea
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of Saint Vitus's dance1

C17: so called because sufferers traditionally prayed to Saint Vitus (3rd-century child martyr) for relief and were said to be cured by a visit to his shrine
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Example Sentences

Don’t come straggling into the office one morning muttering, “First, gout. Now ague, biliousness, lumbago, Saint Vitus’s dance and dropsy. What’s next, apoplexy?”

“Have you got Saint Vitus’s dance, Amy Drew?”

Insanity, epilepsy, delirium, hysteria, Saint Vitus’s dance, and in fact all obstinate disorders for which no specific is known, are invariably ascribed to the influence of demons or sorcerers, and the patient is either declared to be possessed of a devil, or to labour under the disastrous consequences of inumbration by the shadow of an enemy.

They got as much chance with me as a man with Saint Vitus's dance has of landing a trout.

S. Saint Vitus's dance, 240. symptoms of, 241. treatment of, 242.

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