Ricket

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A childhood disease caused by a lack of vitamin D that softens the bones and often leads to bowed legs and deformed skeletons
2. An old name for the childhood bone disorder in which weakened bones bend and deform, usually from a shortage of vitamin D
3. A deficiency disease of growing children marked by soft, malformed bones, typically resulting from insufficient vitamin D or calcium

Etymology: The disease that softens and bends children's bones takes its name from a verb meaning to rattle. In English dialect, "rick" meant to jiggle or make a clattering noise, and the disease's name seems to come from a past participle of that dialect verb, with the "-et" ending added to "rick". Quite how a clattering sound became attached to a bone disorder is not clear, and the origin is uncertain. Some scholars have suggested that "ricket" may be an altered form of "racket", a word for noise, perhaps shaped by the dialect verb. Another possibility links it to a Norwegian Nynorsk verb, "rikta", meaning to make a noise or creak. Neither connection is settled, so the noisy beginnings of the name remain the most solid part of its history.