Emerging Infectious Disease ISSN: 1080-6059

Etymologia: Yaws
Yaws [yôz]

[yôz]
Suggested Citation

Nancy Männikkö

Author affiliation: Author affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA

[yôz]

From either the Carib yaya, for sore or lesion, or yaw, an African word for berry. The term yaws was in common use by the 17th Century, when Dutch physician Willem Piso provided one of the earliest recorded descriptions of yaws in South America in De medicina Brasiliense in 1648. Because lesions associated with the disease resemble berries, another common name for yaws is frambesia tropica, from the French framboise, meaning raspberry.

Sources: Harper D. Online etymology dictionary. Yaws [cited 2011 Apr 7]. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=yaws&searchmode=none; Book notice. Opuscula selecta Neerlandicorum de arte medica [in Dutch]. JAMA. 1937;109:1225 [cited 2011 Apr 7]. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/109/15/1224.4.full.pdf+html

Suggested citation for this article: Männikkö N. Etymologia: Yaws. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 Jun [date cited]. http://dx.doi/org/10.3201/eid1706.ET1706

DOI: 10.3201/eid1706.ET1706

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Nancy Männikkö, EID Journal, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Mailstop D61, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA

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