cacoethes

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
   • […] So swallow pride / And pay the fare, / To climb aboard / As had before / For yet another ride, / On wings of cacoethes, […]2013 April, Jean-Jacques Fournier, “On Wings of Cacoethes: A Risky Flight”, in Reflexions of a Probing Eye, [s.l.]: FON International Guides, →ISBN, page 74
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...
   • As all Ulcers complicated with great Diseases are of difficult Cure, and therefore called Cacoethe: so these Ulcers labouring under Intemperies though they be well handled, are hard of Cure, and may be truly reckoned among the Cacoethe, malign and rebellious Ulcers.1734, Richard Wiseman, “Of Ulcers”, in Eight Chirurgical Treatises, on these Following Heads: viz. I. Of Tumours. II. Of Ulcers. III. Of Diseases of the Anus. IV. Of the King's Evil. V. Of Wounds....