Daily AncestorCynanche
Cynanche was an old medical name for any severe sore throat with swelling and hard breathing, covering quinsy, croup and diphtheria.
The word comes from Greek for a dog's collar, used for a bad sore throat, and it shares its root with quinsy. Webster's 1913 defines it as any disease of the tonsils, throat or windpipe with swelling and difficulty breathing and swallowing.
Quinsy comes from the same Latin word, so the two terms are close cousins. On a record, cynanche tells you the throat was the problem, not which disease.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Ruth Ames, 6, F, W, Nov., Cynanche
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Daily Ancestor. "Cynanche." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/cynanche. Last checked 2026-10-10.