{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T20:10:06Z","timestamp":1758744606857,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2016,7,6]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The term \u2018zoster\u2019 is nowadays associated with \u2018herpes zoster\u2019, the condition resulting from reactivation of the latent varicella-zoster virus which causes shingles. But in antiquity the meaning of \u2018zoster\u2019, a Latin word originating from the Greek for a belt or girdle, was variously associated in men with a form of body armour which could enclose just one half of the body; in women with a garment worn around the waist and sometimes called a \u2018zona\u2019; and with a place, Zoster, linked mythologically then with the goddess Leto and her zona. Around 48 AD, the Roman physician Scribonius Largus became the first to associate \u2018zona\u2019 with \u2018herpes\u2019, and to attribute a medical meaning to \u2018zona\u2019, here an abbreviation of \u2018zona ignea\u2019 (\u2018fiery girdle\u2019). Although in the past the terms \u2018zoster\u2019 and \u2018zona\u2019 were sometimes used interchangeably, today only \u2018zoster\u2019 remains\u2014even when etymologically illogical in those patients whose zoster rash occurs in body areas other than the trunk.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2016-010926","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,8,12]],"date-time":"2016-08-12T22:28:23Z","timestamp":1471040903000},"page":"15-18","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Whence \u2018zoster\u2019? The convoluted classical origins of a sometimes illogical term"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"43","author":[{"given":"G D","family":"Schott","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,8,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa1501184"},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.2","first-page":"571","article-title":"Postherpetic neuralgia","volume":"25","author":"Hope-Simpson","year":"1975","journal-title":"J R Coll Gen Pract"},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.3","unstructured":"Bennett MJ . Belted heroes and bound women: the myth of the Homeric warrior-king. 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Amsterdam: Jacobi de Jonge, 1678:291."},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.3138\/9781442631830-006","volume-title":"Coastal demes of Attika: a study of the policy of Kleisthenes","volume":"\u2013","author":"Eliot","year":"1962"},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0009840X00299423"},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.10","unstructured":"E.E.G. The makers of Hellas: a critical inquiry into the philosophy and religion of ancient Greece. London: Charles Griffin, 1903:89."},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.11","unstructured":"Jocks IT . The Compositiones Medicamentorum of Scribonius Largus. MRes thesis, University of Glasgow, 2013. http:\/\/theses.gla.ac.uk\/id\/eprint\/4892"},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.12","first-page":"74","article-title":"The career and work of Scribonius Largus","volume":"135","author":"Baldwin","year":"1992","journal-title":"Rhein Mus Philol"},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.13","unstructured":"Jouanna-Bouchet J . Zona, un monstre dans le lexique m\u00e9dical latin. In: Champeaux J , Chassignet M , eds. Aere Perennius. Hommage \u00e0 Hubert Zehnacker. Paris: Presses de l'Universit\u00e9 Paris-Sorbonne, 2006:523\u20137."},{"key":"2025092412372036000_43.1.15.14","unstructured":"Scribonius Largus. In: Sconocchia S , ed. Compositiones. Leipzig: B.G. 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