- rickets (n.)
- disease caused by vitamin D deficiency, 1630s, of uncertain origin. Originally a local name for the disease in Dorset and Somerset, England. Some derive it from a Dorset word, rucket "to breathe with difficulty," but the sense connection is difficult. The Modern Latin name for the disease, rachitis, comes from Late Greek rhachitis "inflammation of the spine," from Greek rhakhis "spine," but this was chosen by Whistler for resemblance to rickets.