emerods

{{Short description|Archaic word for hemorrhoids}}

{{Wikt}}

Emerods is an archaic term for hemorrhoids. Derived from the Old French word {{lang|fro|emoroyde}}, it was used as the common English term until the nineteenth century, after which it was replaced in medicine by a direct transliteration of the Ancient Greek etymon, {{langx|grc|αἱμορροΐς|haimorrhoḯs|label=none}}.{{cite book| title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English |author= Fowler FG |edition=7th |year=1919}}

The word is most commonly encountered in the King James Bible, where it appears in the First Book of Samuel describing a plague that afflicted the Philistines who had captured the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites. Chapter 5 of 1 Samuel describes a "plague of emerods" that smote the people of Ashdod in their "secret parts", causing many to die.{{Bibleverse|1 Sam|5:6|KJV}} According to chapter 6, the plague was not relieved until the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites, along with a trespass offering of "five golden emerods and five golden mice" (the plague of emerods occurred simultaneously with a plague of mice).{{Bibleverse|1 Sam|6:4|KJV}} The concept of "golden hemorrhoids" has on occasion given rise to puzzlement or humor.{{cite journal |title=A Bible Disease |journal=Freethinker |author=Forder R |volume=10 |year=1890 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1wvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA39}}

Modern scholars have pointed out that the Hebrew term {{langx|he|עפלים|apholim|label=none}}, translated "emerods" in the KJV, could also be translated as "tumors", as is done in the Revised Version of the Bible.{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/E/emerods.html |title=Emerods |encyclopedia=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online |author=Alex. Macalister |access-date= 8 February 2016}} In the fourth century A.D., Jerome in the Vulgate translated it as "swellings of the secret parts".{{cite journal |author=Conrad LI |title=The biblical tradition for the plague of the Philistines |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=104 |issue=2 |year=1984 |pages=281–7|doi=10.2307/602172 |jstor=602172 }} It has often been speculated that the "plague of emerods" was actually an outbreak of bubonic plague, and that the "plague of mice" was actually a plague of rats, which are not distinguished from mice in Ancient Hebrew.{{cite journal |vauthors=Khan IA |title=Plague: the dreadful visitation occupying the human mind for centuries |journal=Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. |volume=98 |issue=5 |pages=270–7 |year=2004 |pmid=15109549 |doi=10.1016/S0035-9203(03)00059-2 }} Other scholars have identified the "plague of emerods" with other medical conditions, such as bilharziasis,{{cite journal|author=King DF |title=The biblical plague of 'hemorrhoids' An outbreak of bilharziasis |journal=The American Journal of Dermatopathology |year=1985 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=341–6 |doi=10.1097/00000372-198508000-00005|pmid=3939579 }} or the bites of camel spiders.{{cite book| author=Punzo F |title=The Biology of Camel-Spiders: Arachnida, Solifugae |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2012 |page=3 |isbn=9781461557272}}