syphilo-, syphil-, syphili-, syphi-

(Latin: Syphil[us], the eponymous main character of Girolamo Fracastoro's poem "Syphilus sive Morbus Gallicus" [Syphilus, or the French Disease], published at Verona, Italy [1530])

Syphilis is a venereal disease (of which Fracastoro's hero Syphilus, was a victim) and is caused by the microorganism Treponema pallidum.

Syphilus was a shepard whose name literally means a "friend of swine". Perhaps it was derived from Greek syn-, "together", plus philein "to love", or from Greek siphlos, "crippled, maimed". No one seems to know for certain.

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