Tetter

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A skin disease characterized by itchy, inflamed blisters or eruptions ; a contagious, scaly condition affecting the skin ; an old term used for various dermatological afflictions involving rash and irritation
2. A malady presenting as red, crusty patches on the skin ; an infectious, irritating skin complaint ; a historical name for dermatitis with blistering symptoms
3. A disorder causing flaky, blistered skin often accompanied by itching ; a transmissible cutaneous illness ; a former designation for skin conditions marked by oozing lesions and irritation

Etymology: Tetter is one of those English words whose oldest sense is a skin ailment, not a verb of motion. Its ancestry runs back through Old English "teter" and "tetr" to a Proto-Germanic root meaning roughly "to flay, split, crack," a fitting picture for the cracked, crusty patches the word once named. Because the sense concerned the surface of the skin rather than anything deeper, the word spread through medical and folk vocabulary as a catch-all for itchy, scaly eruptions. The verb use is later and more loosely attached to that same notion of an irritating rash. Dermatologists eventually moved away from the term, which now survives mainly in historical writing and in dialect and regional speech.

Synonyms: eczema, ringworm, dermatitis, rash