Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. archaic scrofula
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. scrofula; -- so called because formerly supposed to be healed by the touch of a king.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a form of tuberculosis characterized by swellings of the lymphatic glands
Etymologies
- From a popular belief that the King could cure the disease by touching the sufferer. (Wiktionary)
Examples
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Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘king's evil’.
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king phrases/words
how king is used
king-ale, king and country, king-apple, King Arthur, king-auk, king-ball, king-bane, king-becoming, king-bee, king-bishop, king-born, king-brother and 227 more...
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Afflictions of the Realm
archaic diseases
dropsy, quinsy, tisick, measles, croup, gout, canker, teething, overlaying, mold-shot head, thrush, whooping-cough and 56 more...
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Forgotten English 1
jacal, mastaba, lucarne, quoin, triglyph, gargarice, nimgimmer, phrenologize, fleam, eaglestone, toad eater, king's evil and 156 more...
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X's Y, where X is not somebody's name
Somebody must already have a list like this. But I'm bored, so I'm going to start my own.
cat's pajamas, bee's knees, mare's nest, lion's share, snowball's chance..., widow's peak, busman's holiday, devil's advocate, greengrocer's apo..., baker's dozen, curate's egg, pope's nose and 224 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
Tweets
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trivet If I were king, I'd be inclined to have more of a no touchie policy, not being down with the sharing of scabrous lesions. Oct 22, 2008
sionnach "Scrofula," 1387, translates M.L. regius morbus; so called because the kings of England and France claimed to heal it by their touch. In England, the custom dates from Edward the Confessor and was continued through the Stuarts (Charles II touched 90,798 sufferers) but was ended by the Hanoverians (1714). Oct 22, 2008