Overlapping roof tiles, or a viral infection causing painful skin eruptions along nerve pathways.
From Latin 'scindula' (split wood), through various Germanic languages. The medical condition was named for the way the rash appears to encircle the body like overlapping roof tiles.
The medical condition called shingles gets its name from the distinctive way the rash wraps around the torso like overlapping roof shingles - ancient physicians were surprisingly poetic in their naming conventions. The same virus that causes childhood chickenpox lies dormant for decades before potentially reactivating as shingles.
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