cacoethe

Noun

cacoethes (plural cacoethe)

1. Compulsion; mania.
   • The Speculator responded to the letter with a blend of commiseration and alarm: "this young gentleman's situation is truly pitiable. The cacoethes scribendi is certainly one of the most troublesome diseases of the mind; and when it thus totally possesses a man, I scarce know any madness equal to...2012, Paul Keen, Literature, Commerce, and the Spectacle of Modernity, 1750–1800, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 92
2. (obsolete) A bad quality or disposition in a disease; a malignant tumour or ulcer.
   • Chap. 14. Of Ulcers hard to be cured, commonly called Cacoethe, Telephium, and Chironium. […] Galen in his firſt Book of the Compoſition of Medicaments according to their kinds, Chap. 18. diſtinguiſheth between theſe Dyſepulote Ulcers, that is to ſay, ſuch as are hardly brought to a Cicatrice, and...1661, Daniel Sennert, translated by Nicholas Culpeper and Abdiah Cole, The Art of Chirurgery, Explained in Six Parts … Being the Whol Fifth Book of Practical Physick. By D. Sennert', Doctor of...