bubonic plague
- noun
- /bjuːˈbɒnɪk pleɪɡ/
- Specialized
- The Black Death, a huge wave of epidemics of bubonic plague, spread across Europe during 1347-1353 CE.
- bubonic plague outbreak
New research has shown that the bubonic plague might have selected adna variant that benefits certain autoimmune disorders.
- New research has shown that the bubonic plague might have selected adna variant that benefits certain autoimmune disorders.
Examples
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But then in May, an outbreak of bubonic plague struck in the port of Marseilles.
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A deadly bacterium called Yesenia pestis Procopius is at the centre of the world's first bubonic plague pandemic.
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So nine years after this was painted, the bubonic plague hit much of Europe.
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"In 1910, bubonic plague swept through mainland China.
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In the 14th century, the rat carried the bubonic plague flea that killed one out of every three from India to Iceland.
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In the sixth century A.D., rat fleas from Egypt spread bubonic plague into the Roman Empire, killing millions of people; some scholars say this vast epidemic brought on the Dark Ages.
Academic text (2011) -
In the 14th century, the bubonic plague killed one in three Europeans.
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So nine years after this was painted, the bubonic plague hit much of Europe.
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In the 1300s, the bubonic plague killed over 20% of the humans on the globe.
Synonyms
A very serious disease that spreads quickly and kills many people
A serious disease causing fever and painful swollen glands spread by fleas from rats
A common illness that causes fever and painful swollen glands in the armpits or groin
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a compositional adjective + noun phrase: 'bubonic' describes the type of 'plague', so knowing 'bubonic' (relating to buboes/symptoms) and 'plague' (infectious disease) allows a learner to infer it is the plague characterized by buboes. The relation is literal and subtype-forming rather than idiomatic, and similar descriptive patterns occur cross-linguistically, making the meaning derivable from the parts.
Etymology
The name bubonic plague comes from the painful, swollen lumps called buboes that appear on the body, often in the groin or armpit. People named the illness after that clear sign, so 'bubonic plague' today means the serious 'disease' with those swollen glands.