tuberculosis

Meaning

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.

Synonyms

consumption

TB

phthisis

T.B.

pulmonary tuberculosis

skinny

tubercular

consumptive

lung disease

tubercule

tisis

white scourge

consumptive disease

con

pulmonary disease

Translations

Tuberkulose

tuberculose

tubercolosi

tuberculosis

tuberculose

tuberculose

Schwindsucht

tuberculosi

tüberküloz

φυματίωση

سل

tisi

longtering

tering

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tjuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/

Etymology

To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; 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).