SEVEN YEAR ITCH IN MARRIAGE SKIN

The complaint was also known as camp itch or army itch and was associated with the US army where, around the turn of the 20th century, it was considered to be so rife that civilians would cross the street to avoid being near soldiers. A contagious disease which, it is claimed, was communicated purposely by the plaintiff to he defendant.' Corey - an action brought by the plaintiff to recover damages because of an attack of the 'seven year itch'. In a sad parallel of more recent criminal cases involving people who have been maliciously infected with the HIV virus (called 'revenge sex'), the Iowa State Press reported this in November 1903: The difficulty of getting any relief from the condition was also expressed in the simile - 'as close as the seven-year itch'. In the 19th and early 20th centuries though it was viewed as being so bad that it was used as an appropriate imagined punishment for antisocial behaviour - 'he should be given the seven-year itch and not be allowed to scratch'. The condition, which was bacterial in nature - causing highly irritating red pimples on the face and body, is now so easily treated as to have been virtually forgotten. Job sitting in the ashes and scratching himself amongst the potsherds, was infinitely more comfortable than poor Illinois now is, burning and festering under the scab of Mormonism.' 'When Illinois caught Mormonism off Missouri, she caught something worse than the seven year itch. The name was well enough known by 1845 for the condition to be used as a metaphor for all that is annoying for example, this item from that year, from the Wisconsin Herald and Grant County Advertiser:

SEVEN YEAR ITCH IN MARRIAGE SKIN

Seven-year itch had been known in the USA since the early 19th century as the name of a particularly irritating and contagious skin complaint. The original seven-year itch wasn't a condition that supposedly began after seven years, but one that supposedly lasted for seven years. George Axelrod, who wrote the play on which the film was based, didn't coin the phrase though. It is now often extended to refer to an urge to move on from any situation, and not even limited to those of seven years' duration.

That supposed urge for infidelity after seven years of marriage is the meaning we now have for this phrase.

The film contains one of the most famous images in cinema history - Monroe's dress blowing up over a subway grating. The plot of has Ewell's character working for a company that is about to publish a book suggesting that a many men have extra-marital affairs after seven years of marriage - called the '7-Year Itch'. The Seven Year Itch is best-known to us as the title of the 1955 film, starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell and directed by Billy Wilder. What's the origin of the phrase 'The seven-year itch'? The 'seven-year itch' is the supposed inclination to become unfaithful after seven years of marriage.

Numbers What's the meaning of the phrase 'The seven-year itch'?.

Seven year itch in marriage