scurvy
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GC: n

S: MEDLP – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000355.htm (last access: 5 September 2014); NHS – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/scurvy/ (last access: 10 August 2024).

N: 1. 1560s, noun use of adjective scurvy “covered with scabs, diseased, scorbutic” (early 15c.), variant of scurfy. It took on the narrower meaning of Dutch scheurbuik, French scorbut “scurvy,” in reference to the disease characterized by swollen and bleeding gums, prostration, etc., perhaps from Old Norse skyrbjugr, which is perhaps literally “a swelling (bjugr) from drinking sour milk (skyr) on long sea voyages;” but Oxford English Dictionary has alternative etymology of Middle Dutch or Middle Low German origin, as “disease that lacerates the belly,” from schoren “to lacerate” + Middle Low German buk, Dutch buik “belly.”

2. The scurvy symptoms are weakness, anemia, gum disease and skin hemorrhages. As the cause is a deficit of vitamin C, it can be prevented by a healthy diet with of fresh fruit and vegetables.

3. Cultural Interrelation:

  • Reality: In the summer of 1898, the writer John Griffith Chaney, known as Jack London (1876-1916), developed a severe case of scurvy.
  • Fiction: We can mention the books Treatise of the Scurvy (1753) by James Lind (1716-1794) and Two Years Before the Mast (1840) by Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882).

S: 1. Etymonline – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=scurvy&searchmode=none (last access: 5 September 2014). 2. MDLP – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000355.htm (last access: 12 November 2013). 3. Artof – https://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/03/31/the-life-of-jack-london-as-a-case-study-in-the-power-and-perils-of-thumos-7-into-the-klondike/ (last access: 11 January 2018); NCBI – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1742547/ (last access: 6 June 2016); AbeBooks – http://www.abebooks.com/docs/RareBooks/Avid-Collector/Dec06/pick-month.shtml (last access: 6 June 2016).

SYN: 1. vitamin C deficiency; scorbutus. 2. scorbutus.

S: 1. MDLP – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000355.htm (last access: 12 November 2013). 2. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=scurvy&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 12 November 2013); STEDMAN (last access: 12 November 2013).

CR: beriberi, pellagra, undernutrition.