diphtheria
pronunciation
How to pronounce diphtheria in British English:
UK [dɪfˈθɪəriə]
How to pronounce diphtheria in American English:
US [dɪfˈθɪriə]
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- Noun:
- acute contagious infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae; marked by the formation of a false membrane in the throat and other air passages causing difficulty in breathing
Word Origin
- diphtheria
- diphtheria: [19] The disease diphtheria is characterized by the formation of a false membrane in the throat which obstructs breathing, and when the French physician Pierre Bretonneau described it in the 1820s, he coined a name for it based on Greek diphthéra, which means ‘piece of leather’. Using the suffix -itis, denoting inflammation, he formed the modern Latin term diphtheritis (used in English until the 1850s) and its French equivalent diphthérit.He subsequently substituted diphthérie, and this was borrowed into and established in English in the late 1850s when an epidemic of the disease (then also termed Boulogne sore throat, from its first having been observed in Boulogne) struck Britain.
- diphtheria (n.)
- from French diphthérie, coined 1857 by physician Pierre Bretonneau (1778-1862) from Greek diphthera "prepared hide, leather," which is of unknown origin; the disease so called for the tough membrane that forms in the throat. Bretonneau's earlier name for it was diphthérite, anglicized as diphtheritis (1826). Formerly known in England as the Boulogne sore throat, because it spread from France.
Example
- 1. Diphtheria is a serious infectious disease .
- 2. Have you been vaccinated against diphtheria ?
- 3. Combined diphtheria tetanus acellular pertussis vaccine .
- 4. Diphtheria antitoxin is a foreign protein .
- 5. As diphtheria antitoxin is a foreign protein .