Emerg Infect DisEmerging Infect. DisEIDEmerging Infectious Diseases1080-60401080-6059Centers for Disease Control and Prevention217497763358224ET-170610.3201/eid1706.ET1706News and NotesEtymologiaRunning head: eytmologia6201117610821082Keywords: etymologiayawsYaws [yôz]

From either the Carib yaya, for sore or lesion, or yaw, an African word for berry. The term yaws was in common use by the 17th Century, when Dutch physician Willem Piso provided one of the earliest recorded descriptions of yaws in South America in De medicina Brasiliense in 1648. Because lesions associated with the disease resemble berries, another common name for yaws is frambesia tropica, from the French framboise, meaning raspberry.

Sources: Harper D. Online etymology dictionary. Yaws [cited 2011 Apr 7]. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=yaws&searchmode=none; Book notice. Opuscula selecta Neerlandicorum de arte medica [in Dutch]. JAMA. 1937;109:1225 [cited 2011 Apr 7]. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/109/15/1224.4.full.pdf+html