Death Dictionary
The following table is our canonical causes of death and their description as determined by the Oxford English Dictionary.
| Cause | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abortive | an aborted pregnancy; see also miscarriage and still-born |
| Aged | death by natural causes during old age |
| Ague | chills and fever, often from malaria |
| Apoplexy | rupture of an internal organ, especially the brain |
| Asthma | chronic inflamation of the airways, making it difficult to breathe |
| Beaten | punched, kicked, etc. |
| Bed-ridden | confined to bed through sickness or infirmity and subsequent death |
| Blasted | probably having a withered or blighted appearance |
| Bleeding | excessive blood loss |
| Bloody-flux | bloody diarrhea, especially from dysentery |
| Burnt | fire injuries, probably excluding smoke inhalation |
| Calenture | heat stroke or sunstroke with delirium |
| Cancer | originally a sore or ulcer that wouldn't heal, later a malignant tumor |
| Chicken-Pox | viral infectious disease still known as chickenpox today; see also shingles |
| Child-Bed | maternal death during childbirth |
| Chrisoms | infant deaths under one month old |
| Cold | assorted viral, respiratory illnesses believed to be caused by a humoreal imbalance (too much coldness) |
| Colick | severe stomach pain due to issue with bowels |
| Consumption | wasting disease, especially pulmonary tuberculosis |
| Convulsion | involuntary contractions and relaxation of muscles, shaking entire body |
| Cough | death with coughing as a primary symptom |
| Cramp | involuntary muscle contraction |
| Diabetes | excessive urination |
| Distracted | language used to excuse suicide or accidental death due to mental illness |
| Dropsie | swelling of tissue due to accumulation of excess water, a sign of organ failure |
| Drowned | inhalation of liquid, usually but not always water |
| Executed | judicial homicide |
| Falling-sickness | epileptic seizures |
| Fever | death with fever as a primary symptom |
| Fistula | abnormal connection between two organs |
| Flox | hemorrhagic smallpox |
| Flux | diarrhea, especially from dysentery |
| Frighted | frightened to death |
| French-Pox | syphilis |
| Gangreen | death of body tissue because of lack of blood flow or bacterial infection |
| Gout | urate crystals accumulating in joints |
| Grief | death (not caused by disease or human agency) which is attributed to grief and losing the will to live |
| Griping or Plague in the Guts | sudden intense pain in the intestines, diarrhea |
| Gripes | see griping in the guts |
| Headache | death with head pains as a primary symptom |
| Headmouldshot | injury or disease affecting skull sutures, including overlapping sutures and possibly brain inflammation |
| Hiccough | death with hiccough as a primary symptom |
| Hooping Cough | whooping cough |
| Horshoehead | infant skull malformation where gaps form between head sutures |
| Impostume | bacterial abscess |
| Infants | death of a child over a month old but still in infancy |
| Inflammation | death with inflammation as a primary symptom |
| Itch | death with itching as a primary symptom |
| Jaundies | liver disease, causes yellowing of skin and eyes |
| Jaw-fallen | neonatal tetanus |
| Killed | death caused by human agency |
| Kings Evil | tubercular infection of throat lymph glands |
| Leprosie | leprosy |
| Lethargy | death with extreme drowsiness as primary symptom |
| Liver-grown | swollen liver |
| Looseness | death with loose stool or diarrhea as a primary symptom |
| Lunatick and Frenzy | death of someone with mental illness or in an altered mental state; see also distracted |
| Malignant Fever | death with a severe or extremely contagious fever as a primary symptom |
| Meagrim | severe headache or migraine |
| Measles | deadly and highly infectious disease, still known today as measles but now preventable by vaccines |
| Miscarriage | aborted pregnancy; see also abortive and still-born |
| Mortification | gangrene or tissue necrosis |
| Mother | unclear, possibly some uterine disorder but NOT death in childbirth or maternal murder of infants which are listed separately |
| Murthered | extra-judicial homicide or murder |
| Noli me tangere | spreading skin ulceration, including those caused by carcinomas |
| Overlaid | accidental smothering of an infant by rolling over them in sleep |
| Palsie | paralysis, weakness, or other problems using muscles, including tremors |
| Plague | disease caused by y. pestis |
| Planet or Planet-struck | stricken with paralysis or other physical disorder attributed to astrological influences |
| Plurisie | inflammation of tissue lining the lungs |
| Purples | any disease causing a dark red or purple rash |
| Quinsie | complication of tonsillitis, infection spreads beyond tonsils |
| Rash | death with a skin rash as a primary symptom |
| Rheumatism | pain or stiffness in the joints and muscles |
| Rickets | weakening of bones because of prolonged vitamin D deficiency |
| Rising of the Lights | difficulty breathing or a choking sensation |
| Running of the Reins | gonorrhea or other sexually transmitted infection, sometimes including syphilis |
| Rupture | hernia |
| Scald Head | ringworm or similar scalp infection |
| Scalded | burnt by hot water |
| Scarlet Fever | a strep infection, or similar infection causing a scarlet rash |
| Sciatica | hip or more general joint pain, sometimes substituted as a diagnosis for syphilis |
| Scowring | probably purging bowels |
| Scurvy | disease caused by vitamin C deficiency |
| Shingles | severe neurological pain and skin infection caused by the reactivation of dormant chickenpox virus in the body |
| Smallpox | highly deadly and infectious disease, still known today as smallpox but now preventable by vaccines |
| Sores | pain in the body, often accompanied by broken or raw skin |
| Spleen | death attributed to malfunction of the spleen organ, possibly including fits of temper |
| Spotted-Fever | disease that causes both fever and spots on the skin, including meningococcal minigitis and typhus |
| St. Anthony's Fire | skin disease or condition characterized by heat and redness |
| Starved | death from malnutrition or lack of food |
| Still-born | child born lifeless or with a heartbeat but failing to breathe |
| Stone | concretion in the body, esp. kidneys, bladder or gallbladder |
| Stopping of the Stomach | constipation or other blockages in the digestive tract |
| Strangury | slow and painful urination |
| Strongullion | an inflammation and swelling of throat glands |
| Suddenly | sudden death with no other attributable cause |
| Suicide | death from deliberate self-harm |
| Surfeit | excess of food or drink |
| Swelling in the Throat | throat swelling partially or completely shut |
| Swine-Pox | viral infectious disease that caused skin lesions and was associated with pigs, still extant today |
| Teeth | infection caused by teething or poor dental hygeine |
| Thrush | fungal disease characterized by white specks inside the mouth and throat, also lips and tongue |
| Tympany | morbid swelling or tumor |
| Tissick | disease characterized by coughing and wheezing; see also asthma, consumption |
| Twisting of the Guts | probably wrenching pain in the guts |
| Ulcer | open sore filled with pus or other matter |
| Vapours | death attributed to gaseous emissions developing within the stomach or other organs |
| Vomiting | death with vomitting as a primary symptom |
| Water in the Head | hydrocephalus, or a childhood disease that causes fluid to accumulate in the skull cavity |
| Wen | lump or tumor under the skin |
| Wind | death with wind or gas in the digestive tract as a primary symptom |
| Wolf | malignant or erosive disease that "devours" like a wolf |
| Worms | disease or condition attributed to a worm in the body |
| Wounded | death due to wounds suffered from some deliberate or accidental event |