A medical condition caused by consuming too much bromine or bromide compounds, leading to poisoning with symptoms like skin rashes and drowsiness.
From bromine (the chemical element) + -ism (a condition or state). Bromine itself comes from Greek 'bromos' meaning stench, because the element has a strong unpleasant smell. The -ism suffix was added to create a medical condition term in the 19th century.
Bromism was actually a common diagnosis in the late 1800s and early 1900s when bromide salts were widely used as sedatives and sleeping aids—doctors didn't realize patients were slowly poisoning themselves with their own medicine!
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