Daily AncestorAbscess
An abscess was a pocket of pus in any part of the body, under the skin or deep in an organ; old records may also call it a gathering.
The word comes from Latin for a going away or gathering of humors. Webster's 1913 defines an abscess as a collection of pus in any tissue or organ, and gives the folk word gathering for a boil or abscess that has come to a head.
The record often names the organ, as in abscess of the liver or lung, which tells you more than the word alone. IPUMS groups abscesses and carbuncles in its codes for the 1850 to 1880 mortality schedules.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Moses Platt, 38, M, W, Laborer, Abscess of liver
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Abscess." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/abscess. Last checked 2026-10-10.