Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rheumatiz n.

rheumatism.

1760		Foote The Minor 40: My old disorder, the rheumatise.
1776		New Brooms! I: None of your whipper-snapper Lilliputians – ate up with the gout and the rheumatis.
1816		W. Scott Old Mortality in Waverley II (1855) 392: Robin’s ill o’ the rheumatize, and he’s to his bed too.
1820		‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘King Tims the First’ Fancy 30: I have the rheumatiz, and you the gout.
1831		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 20: What, are you lame – have you got the rheumatis?
1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 23: The wet and cold [...] brought on the rumaties. [Ibid.] 61: Your father has got the rumatise dreadfully.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 99: The only thing you get for nothin’ here is rain and smoke, the rumatiz and scorny airs.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 314: Th’ ’ounds got starved, th’ ’osses got cold, and i got the rheumatis.
1847		J.M. Field Drama in Pokerville 131: Ken Mesmerism come the re-mee-jil over rheumatiz?
1856		M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 335: You know how you allers suffers in cold wedder wid de rheumatiz.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 230: Ain’t my rheumatiz bad enough, beggar you.
1871		E. Eggleston Hoosier School-Master (1892) 121: And you know the cure for rheumatiz?
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1887) 34: He is awful ’fraid of rheumatiz.
1892		Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 26 Mar. 2/5: I know some on us as got rheumatiz bad in our backs.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 92: Say, I always taut widdys was old [...] and has rheumatiz.
1902		J.D. Corrothers Black Cat Club 90: ‘Chop down de tree!’ [...] yells Uncle Ephum, rollin’ and groanin’ wid his rheumatiz.
1911		G. Stratton-Porter Harvester 366: This spring I was all crippled up with the rheumatiz.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 404: Spud again the rheumatiz? All poppycock.
1929		J. Tully Shanty Irish 7: It’s the damned rheumatiz eatin’ at the sad heart o’ me.
1935		L. Hughes Mulatto in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: How’s the rheumatiz today?
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 149: [It] would have made a bull with the rheumatiz begin pawing and prancing.
1956		H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 196: Don’t catch the roo-ma-tiz.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 48: He [...] caught the rheumatiz an’ catarrh.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 581: Cain’t make my fingers go that fast now. It’s the rheumatiz.