tuberculosis

English

Etymology

To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (lump)) + -osis (diseased condition); named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because of the wasting away that consumed health and seemed even to consume flesh in some cases (for example, causing fistulas and tissue breakdown).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /tjuːˌbɜː(r)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊsɪs

Noun

tuberculosis (countable and uncountable, plural tuberculoses)

  1. (pathology) An infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expectoration of mucus and sputum, fever, weight loss, and chest pain, and transmitted through inhalation or ingestion of bacteria. [from 1839]
    • 2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 380:
      With smallpox gone, tuberculosis is today the deadliest infectious disease on the planet.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also


Asturian

Noun

tuberculosis f (uncountable)

  1. (pathology) tuberculosis (infectious disease)

Interlingua

Noun

tuberculosis (uncountable)

  1. Alternative form of tuberculose.

Latin

Adjective

tūberculōsīs

  1. dative/ablative masculine/feminine/neuter plural of tūberculōsus

Spanish

Etymology

From Scientific Latin tuberculosis, from tubercŭlum (tiny tumor) and + -osis.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tubeɾkuˈlosis/ [t̪u.β̞eɾ.kuˈlo.sis]
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -osis
  • Syllabification: tu‧ber‧cu‧lo‧sis

Noun

tuberculosis f (plural tuberculosis)

  1. tuberculosis

References

  1. tuberculosis”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Further reading

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