" onchocerciasis "

[Noun]  | "on*cho*cer*ci*a*sis" | \ ˌäŋ-kō-ˌsər-ˈkī-ə-səs \

1: infestation with or disease caused by filarial worms (genus Onchocerca); especially : a human disease marked by subcutaneous nodules, dermatitis, and visual impairment and caused by a worm (O. volvulus) found in Africa and tropical America which is transmitted by the bite of a female blackfly —called also river blindness

Origin: 1911 ;

 New Latin Onchocerca, genus of filarial worms (from oncho-, probably erroneously for onco-, from Greek ónkos "barb of an arrow" + -o- {see: |-o-|-o-} + -kerka, feminine of -kerkos "having a tail [of the kind specified]," adjective derivative of kérkos "tail") + {see: |-iasis|-iasis} {mat|angle:2|}, {mat|cercus|};

  * Note : The genus Onchocerca was introduced by the Austrian zoologist Karl Moriz Diesing (1800-67) in a brief Latin description of the worm Onchocerca reticulata appended to an article by J. Hermann, "Trichina, bei einem Pferde gefunden," Oesterreichische medicinische Wochenschrift, 1841, no. 9 (February 27), p. 199-200. Diesing's coinage is presumed to mean "hook-tailed," on the assumption that his oncho- is a mistake for onco-, but nothing in the description renders this self-evident. Perhaps the reference is to the spicule (copulatory organ) of the male.;