elephantiasis
pronunciation
How to pronounce elephantiasis in British English:
UK [ˌelɪfənˈtaɪəsɪs]
How to pronounce elephantiasis in American English:
US [ˌɛləfənˈtaɪəsɪs]
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- Noun:
- hypertrophy of certain body parts (usually legs and scrotum); the end state of the disease filariasis
Word Origin
- elephantiasis (n.)
- 1580s, from Greek elephantos, genitive of elephas "elephant" (see elephant) + -iasis "pathological or morbid condition." It refers to two diseases, one characterized by thickening of a body part (E. Arabum), the other, older meaning is "disease characterized by skin resembling an elephant's" (E. Græcorum, also called Egyptian leprosy). In Middle English, elephancy (late 14c.).
Example
- 1. According to who , the infection usually begins in childhood but often takes years to cause elephantiasis .
- 2. Since 2008 , for example , volunteers in sierra leone have distributed drugs to fight elephantiasis , locally dubbed " big fut " .
- 3. With river blindness , black flies spread larvae that when grown destroy eye tissue ; mosquitoes do the same for the worms that block the lymphatic system in elephantiasis ; hookworm , roundworm and whipworm are soil-born .
- 4. But it also kills several tropical parasites , including the mosquito-borne ones that cause lymphatic filariasis-a disease also called elephantiasis for the horribly swollen limbs suffered by patients-and those carried by black flies that cause onchocerciasis , or river blindness .