Main Entry: ¹pin·ta

Pronunciation: \ˈpin-tə, -ˌtä\

Function: noun

Etymology: American Spanish, from Spanish, spot, mark, from Vulgar Latin *pincta

Date: 1825

: a chronic skin disease that is endemic in tropical America, that occurs successively as an initial papule, a generalized eruption, and a patchy loss of pigment, and that is caused by a treponemal spirochete (Treponema careteum) morphologically indistinguishable from the causative agent of syphilis