Chilblains are sore, itchy, red patches on the skin, most often on the fingers, toes, ears, or nose. They come when the skin gets cold — and sometimes wet — and then warms up again. They hurt, but they are not frostbite. Frostbite is when the flesh actually freezes and can die; chilblains are the skin’s unhappy answer to cold, and they usually heal, though slowly. We nearly always say the word in the plural: she has chilblains. You hear it more from older speakers and in cold countries. In warm Taiwan you may never need it in daily talk, but the medical idea is the same as 凍瘡.

凍瘡