Path. Pl. furfures. Also 7 furfaire, 9 arch. furfair. [a. L. furfur bran.] Dandriff, scurf; pl. particles of epidermis or scurf; also, a bran-like sediment in the urine.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. I. iii. (1651), 7. Grievances, which … are inward or outward … belonging to the brain, as baldness, falling of haire, furfaire. Ibid., II. i. IV. iii. 231. Leprosie, Ulcers, Itches, Furfures, Scabs, etc.
1754. Dict. Arts & Sc., II. 1367/2. Those excrementitious particles which are evacuated with the urine, are also called furfures; and for the same reason this name is also given to the scabies or scurf of the head.
1798–1808. R. Willan, Cutaneous Dis., in Cullen’s Nosol. Method., App. (1820), 320, note. Furfur (scruf), small exfoliations of the cuticle which occur after slight inflammation of the skin.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, IV. 117. My outward crust Of lies, which wrap as tetter, morphew, furfair, Wrap the sound flesh.
1885. Syd. Soc. Lex., Furfur, a term applied, especially in France, to the layers of cuticle, like to bran, which are detached from the skin in such diseases as pityriasis.
