lupus

Word family

• lupoid
  adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Lupus is the everyday name patients and family members use; doctors and medical papers usually prefer SLE, which stands for systemic lupus erythematosus, the most common form. SLE sounds more clinical and appears on test results or in hospital notes, while lupus is the word a patient might use when telling a friend about her diagnosis — for example, 'Mira told her boss she had lupus, not SLE, because the everyday word felt easier to explain.' Autoimmune disease is a much wider label: it covers lupus alongside other conditions in which the body's defence system attacks healthy tissue. So a doctor might say, 'Lupus is one type of autoimmune disease', but would not call every autoimmune disease lupus.

Common collocations

Etymology

From Latin lupus, meaning 'wolf'. Medieval doctors named the disease this way because they thought the spreading skin sores looked as if a wolf had bitten or eaten away at the face. The full medical term 'lupus erythematosus' adds Greek words meaning 'reddened', describing the warm red rash that often appears on the cheeks.