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prettygoodwordphthisis (THEY-sis, TEY-sis) - n., a wasting away of the body (or part of the body), esp. (obs.) pulmonary tuberculosis.
Now rare in the first sense, and completely obsolete in the consumptive sense -- though the adjectival phthisic still survives as a rare synonym for asthmatic. Borrowed around 1520 from medical Greek phthÃsis, lung disease, especially in particular TB, from phthÃein, to decay + a noun ending.
---L.
Now rare in the first sense, and completely obsolete in the consumptive sense -- though the adjectival phthisic still survives as a rare synonym for asthmatic. Borrowed around 1520 from medical Greek phthÃsis, lung disease, especially in particular TB, from phthÃein, to decay + a noun ending.
---L.
