Guinea worm
1
9.5
- noun
- /ˈɡɪni wɜrm/
- Specialized
:
gusano de Guinea
- To prevent Guinea worm infection, it's essential to drink only filtered water in affected areas.
- guinea worm disease
- eradicate Guinea worm
- Guinea worm, a parasite
Examples
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The Carter Center had already demonstrated its ability to manage a similar effort, coordinating a successful program to reduce the incidence of guinea worm disease, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.
Academic text (2004) -
Some of the underlying uncommon associated factors include leprosy (1), obesity (3), guinea worm (1), malignancy (5), and tibia exostosis (1).
Academic text (2007) -
- I believe she has guinea worm.
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Village women filtering water to prevent the spread of guinea worm.
Academic text (2002) -
Parasites like guinea worm and the agent of river blindness can usually be easily treated, but not when the drugs cannot reach those who need them.
Academic text (2002) -
One invasive tropical creature, the guinea worm, is already expected to follow smallpox into extinction.
Academic text (1997) -
One of the most commonly known water-based diseases is dracunculiasis, or guinea worm disease, caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis.
Academic text (2004) -
Efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease have greatly improved access to clean drinking water.
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The Guinea worm can grow up to one meter long in the human body before emerging painfully.
Synonyms
A worm that lives under people's skin and causes Guinea worm disease
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase transparently signals a kind of worm (combining the place-name 'Guinea' with 'worm'), so a B1 learner who knows both words will infer it refers to a worm associated with that name. However, the precise sense — a specific parasitic species and the disease it causes after drinking contaminated water — is specialized and not predictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
Guinea worm gets its name from early European visitors who found the long worm in people along the Guinea coast of West Africa. Because people often caught it after drinking dirty water and the worm slowly came out through the skin, Guinea worm now means 'a worm that lives inside people and causes a painful disease'.