lupus

In modern English, this word is used mainly for a long-term autoimmune disease. It describes a condition in which the body's immune system attacks healthy tissue by mistake, causing inflammation and pain. The illness can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, and other organs, and its symptoms can look like those of many other conditions, so it can be hard to diagnose.

The word comes from Latin, where it means "wolf." You may also see it as the name of a constellation, though that use is much less common in everyday English. In most ordinary reading and conversation, people mean the disease.

Lupus is most often used in English as the name of a chronic autoimmune disease. In an autoimmune disease, the immune system, which normally protects the body from infection, attacks healthy tissue by mistake. This can lead to inflammation and damage in different parts of the body, including the skin, joints, kidneys, blood, brain, heart, and lungs.

The word comes from the Latin word for "wolf." Historically, doctors used the name because some facial skin marks were thought to look like the marks of a wolf's bite. One well-known sign is a butterfly-shaped rash across the cheeks and nose, but not everyone with the disease has this rash. Symptoms vary widely and may include tiredness, joint pain, fever, skin problems, and problems with internal organs. Because these signs can look like those of many other illnesses, diagnosis is often difficult.

There are several types. Systemic lupus erythematosus, often called SLE, is the most common and can affect many organs. Cutaneous or discoid forms mainly affect the skin. Drug-induced lupus can appear after the use of certain medicines and may improve when the medicine is stopped. Neonatal lupus is rare and affects some babies born to mothers with certain antibodies.

Outside medicine, lupus can also refer to a constellation, especially in astronomy or older writing, though this meaning is much less common today. So while the word has more than one use, the medical sense is by far the one most people mean in present-day English.