syphilis

n. Contagious venereal disease.  syphilitic adj. [syphilus, name of a character in a poem of 1530]

n. The pox, or venereal disease; a chronic, specific, infectious disease, usually communicated by sexual intercourse or by hereditary transmission, and occurring in three stages known as primary, secondary, and tertiary syphilis. See under Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.