from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The bloating or enlargement of the head, especially of the face, due to tubercular leprosy: from the fancied leonine aspect produced by it.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
The disease was called "leontiasis," and consisted of an enormous over-development of bone and skin on one side.
Megalocephaly, or as it was called by Virchow, leontiasis ossea, is due to a hypertrophic process in the bones of the cranium.
Hypertrophy of the digits is the result of many different processes, and true hypertrophy or gigantism must be differentiated from acromegaly, elephantiasis, leontiasis, and arthritis deformans, for which distinction the reader is referred to an article by Park.
_Osteoma_ occurs in two forms: the exostosis, which may be composed of cancellated or of compact tissue, and the diffuse osteoma or leontiasis ossea (Volume I., p. 485).
When well advanced, the tubercular or nodular masses give rise to great deformity; the face, a favorite locality, becomes more or less leonine in appearance (_leontiasis_).