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Apparently it’s a candidate for what killed George Washington! Agree on how innocuous it sounds. When I first read ‘quinsy’ I thought ‘oh thank god, that sounds like it can’t be that bad’. I guess stuff like pleurisy and consumption are similar in this regard. Probably why more serious technical terms are preferred these days. ‘Peritonsillar abscess’ for quinsy sounds a bit more apt.
So much this, sounds like a made-up victorian ailment that was just an excuse to tuck into the laudanum.