Rheumatology

The first entry is das Rheuma, and an English reader who knows « rheum » from old novels will look for it in the wrong part of the body. Both words go back to Greek rheuma, a flow or stream, from the old belief that illness came from humours flowing where they should not. English kept the flow. « Rheum » is a watery discharge from the eyes or nose, and « rheumy eyes » are running ones. German sent the word to the joints. Das Rheuma is the everyday umbrella for aching, stiff or swollen joints and muscles — Sie hat Rheuma, usually with no article and never in the plural — while the doctor’s letter names the disease behind it: die Gicht, der Morbus Bechterew, a Kollagenose. A German Rheuma never streams; the nearest English is « rheumatism ». These pages explain words and give no medical advice.