How dermatology got its name

The name "dermatology" began to appear in the medical literature around 1813. It was not until the 1860s and 1870s, however, that "dermatology" was used to denote academic ranks in the United States; for example, in 1867, Foster Swift was appointed "Professor of Dermatology" at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, and Faneuil Dunkin Weisse became "Professor of Dermatology" in the Medical Department of University of the City of New York. In England, Erasmus Wilson popularized the name "dermatology" in 1870 by founding and occupying the first Chair of Dermatology at the Royal College of Surgeons. The term "dermatology" also began to be used in the titles of academic publications during the 1870s, such as Erasmus Wilson's Lectures on Dermatology or as in The American Journal of Syphilography and Dermatology, the first dermatology journal published in the United States. The English term "dermatology" comes from the Greek "dermatologia," which has been semantically traced back to 1777. (c) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.