Path. [mod.L., a. Gr. σύκωσις, f. σῦκον fig.]
1. Applied to various kinds of ulcer or morbid growth on the skin, resembling a fig. ? Obs.
1580. T. Newton, Approved Med., 77. A certaine disease of the eye Lyddes which is called Sycosis.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict., Sycosis, an Excrescence of the Flesh about the Fundament. ’Tis also an Ulcer so called from the resemblance of a Fig.
1820. Good, Nosology, 155. Sycosis, tumour excrescent; fleshy; fig-shaped.
2. An eruptive disease characterized by inflammation of the hair-follicles, esp. of the beard.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), II. 352. Sycosis … is seated sometimes on the beard, and sometimes in the hair of the head.
1883–4. Medical Annual, 23/1. Eczema of the chin and cheeks of adults … the non-parasitic sycosis of many writers.
