caisson disease
1
8.3
- noun
- /ˈkeɪsən dɪˈziːz/
- Archaic
:
enfermedad de descompresión
- I was on the Fulton Ferry, coming over to address a problem at the Brooklyn tower when your husband was stricken by caisson disease.
Examples
-
"Caisson disease," Eva said.
Fiction book (1995) -
His father is a most excellent and industrious bridge worker and a war veteran who has been struck down by caisson disease.
Fiction book (1995) -
After spending too much time underwater, he experienced severe pain in his joints, a clear sign of caisson disease.
-
The diver suffered from caisson disease due to ascending too quickly after a deep dive.
-
Symptoms of caisson disease can include dizziness, joint pain, and fatigue after rapid changes in pressure.
Synonyms
1
7.4
A condition that happens when body pressure falls quickly and gas bubbles form in the body causing pain
1
9.8
A painful condition divers get when nitrogen forms bubbles in the body after a fast ascent
Surface Forms
Morphology
If a learner knows 'caisson' (a sealed/pressurized chamber) and 'disease' (a medical condition), they can directly infer that 'caisson disease' is a disease associated with caissons — i.e., the pressure-related illness experienced by workers or divers. This is a regular noun–noun composition where the modifier specifies the source/context of the disease, so the overall meaning is compositionally predictable.
Etymology
Caisson disease comes from the word caisson, a large airtight 'box' that workers used when building under water. When people left a caisson too quickly, gas bubbles formed in their blood and caused pain and dizziness, so the name came to mean what we now call 'decompression sickness'.