Aridura

Body disease and historical medicine · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A bodily condition described as complete consumption or wasting.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 7; facsimile PDF page 335.

Historical Definition

Aridura is the total wasting away of the body and its parts.

Meaning

The word “consumption” in the historical wording concerns wasting away. It should not automatically be replaced by the name of a particular modern disease. The entry’s emphasis is extent: the whole body and its parts are involved. It supplies no cause, symptom sequence or therapeutic preparation.

In medical prose, this term may therefore describe a condition or outcome rather than identify an agent producing it. Keeping that distinction visible helps a reader follow an argument about bodily decline without adding a diagnosis that the source has not made.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 7; facsimile PDF page 335 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Aridura