Note 34 — THE GREAT EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
Thomas C. (Thomas Chalmers) Minor translation
It was Fracastor who gave venereal diseases the name of syphilis in his poem “Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus,” published at Verona in 1530. According to Ricord, syphilis is derived from the Greek words sus, pork, and philia, love (love for pork). Gorre in the Romanesque language long before had the same signification.