French disease
SyphilisSyphilis.
Meaning
1 senses(dated, euphemistic)Syphilis.
Franzosenkrankheit
Translations
4 languagesDeutsch
syphilis:
Origin
The full explanation of why syphilis was called the French disease as a calque across variThe full explanation of why syphilis was called the French disease as a calque across various languages involves a 1495 outbreak involving French soldiers (more in Wikipedia at History of syphilis); but it is also true that this term is one of several that blame othered ethnicities for distasteful and unseemly things.
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