the term 'syphilis' originates from a 16th-century latin poem, 'syphilis sive morbus gallicus', written by the italian physician and poet girolamo fracastoro. in the poem, syphilus is a shepherd who is the first sufferer of the disease, a character possibly named from the greek 'sýphilos', meaning 'lover of pigs' or from a combination of 'sýs' (pig) and 'phílos' (loving). the name was subsequently adopted in new latin to label the disease itself. this literary coinage, rather than a composition of classical morphemes, explains the modern term's lack of internal segmentable structure.

the word is a simplex loanword from new latin. it does not contain separable morphemes in its modern english form.