A constitutional condition or tendency toward arthritis, or an archaic term for the disease of arthritis itself.
From 'arthritis' + '-ism' (a condition or system). The '-ism' suffix creates nouns describing diseases, philosophies, or conditions—this term is largely obsolete, replaced by 'arthritis'.
The '-ism' suffix transformed the specific disease 'arthritis' into 'arthritism' (a tendency toward it), but medical language prefers specificity over abstraction, so this term faded in favor of clearer modern terms.
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