After some research, I discovered that typhus and typhoid are actually different diseases. Typhoid, the more recently discovered of the two, was initially thought to be a variant of typhus. As a result, the suffix -oid was added to indicate resemblance, and the distinction was made. The term typhus originates from the Ancient Greek word typhos, which translates to “smoke.” Hippocrates used this term to describe conditions of stupor, and later on, people associated it with feelings of drowsiness caused by the affliction. Typhos is derived from the earlier verb typhein, meaning “to smoke,” which is believed to stem from the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction dheu, signifying “dust” or “vapor” with connotations of sensory confusion that eventually influenced the development of words like deaf and typhoon.
