A painful, pus-filled bump on the skin, usually caused by a bacterial infection of a hair follicle; a boil.
From Latin 'furunculus,' originally meaning 'thief' because these skin infections seemed to steal health from the body. The word is related to 'furtum' (theft), showing how ancients saw disease metaphorically.
Romans called these infections 'little thieves' because they appeared suddenly and seemed to steal your comfort away—that metaphor stuck around for 2,000 years and gave us the medical term we use today!
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