The first recorded mention of it in English is as "the French pox" in 1503. Elsewhere it was known as the Spanish disease, the Celtic humors, the Neapolitan pox, or, perhaps most tellingly, "the Christian disease." Syphilis was coined in a poem by the Italian Hieronymus Fracastorius in 1530 (in his poem Syphilis is the name of a shepherd who gets the disease) but does not appear in English until 1718. Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, loc. 5563. Kindle Edition Tags: writing