a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. xciii. 984 Aȝeins ycchyng and scabbes wete and drye, and aȝeins þe schingles [a1450 Bodl. cingules, 1495 de Worde Shyngles, L. impetiginem].
c1450 in W. R. Dawson (1934) 268 (MED) The schyngles..is an euell þat will sprynge owt of a man as it were fyre, but it is gretter and redder, and it will sprynge euer a raw, and iff begird a man, happely he shall neuer be hole.
1527 L. Andrewe tr. H. Brunschwig sig. Gij The onnatural hete named shyngles [Ger. freisam] on the bodye.
1546 T. Phaer sig. Bb.viii In Greke herisipelas, and of the Latines Sacer ignis, our Englysshe women call it the fyre of Saynt Anthonye, or chingles, it is an inflammation of membres with excedyng burnynge and rednesse, harde in the feelynge, and for the most parte crepeth aboue the skynne or but a lytle depe within the flesshe.
1609 W. B. tr. i. xxxii. f. 48v The oyle of nuts..helpes the shingles.
1655 T. Fuller ix. 75 It is observed of the Gingles, or St. Anthony his fire, that it is mortall if it come once to clip and encompasse the whole body.
1712 J. Swift 10 May (1948) II. 531 The Drs sd that they never saw any thing so odd of the Kind; they were not properly Shingles, but Herpes miliaris, and 20 other hard names.
1789 M. Underwood (rev. ed.) II. 10 Should the shingles spread and become sore, it should be treated as directed below.
1802 W. Heberden, Jr. tr. W. Heberden xxiii. 126 The herpes, or shingles..consists of a heap of watery bladders.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. VIII. 618 On hearing that it is the ‘shingles’ and that it is not catching.
1935 6 July 2/1 Neuralgias and pains of nerves serving the surface of the head, such as tooth-ache, face-ache, shingles.
1990 Spring 36/1 Shingles starts with pain over one side of the head.
2006 Sept. 83 Here I was examined by a pretty young doctor, who mused that my affliction looked like shingles, the secondary flaring up of chickenpox in oldies who've already enjoyed the delight of suffering the illness as a child.