Webster's English Dictionary

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syphilis

syph.i.lis \'sif-(*-)l*s\ \.sif-*-'lit-ik\ n [NL, fr. Syphilus, hero of the 
   poem Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus (]Syphilis or the French disease) (1530) 
   by Girolamo Fracastoro : a chronic contagious usu. venereal and often 
   congenital disease caused b y a spirochete (Treponema pallidum) and 
   characterized by a clinical course in three stages continued over many 
   years - syph.i.lit.ic ajor ;n