Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
Pick·wick·ian syndrome Pronunciation:
(')pik-'wik-E-&n- Function:
noun : obesity accompanied by somnolence and lethargy,hypoventilation, hypoxia, and secondary polycythemia
Pickáwick /'pik-"wik/,
Samuel, literary character. Pickwick is the title character in the novel
The Posthumous Papersof the Pickwick Club (1836–37) by Charles Dickens. In the novel one of the characters, Joe, is described as a “fat and red-faced boy in a state of somnolence.” The term
Pickwickian syndrome was first used by C. S. Burwell in an article on the syndrome in 1956. The name was chosen because Dickens's description was the first description of the syndrome found inliterature.
