degenerative disorder
1
5.8
- noun
- /dɪˈdʒɛnərətɪv dɪsˈɔrdər/
- Specialized
:
trastorno degenerativo
- He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder that attacks the central nervous system, impairing motor functions and cognition.
Examples
-
Mad cow disease is a chronic, degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system of cattle.
Academic text (2005) -
And Prozac, so that I'm not too bummed about having a major degenerative disorder at 26.
-
Marcus has Asperger's, and Ricky has a childhood degenerative disorder.
Blog text (21) -
Mad cow disease is a chronic, degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system of cattle.
-
She suffered from a rare degenerative disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that progressively deteriorated her health.
How Serious
- Specialized
1
5.8
- Specialized
5
3.7
- Specialized
8
5.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'degenerative' (involving progressive deterioration) with 'disorder' (a medical condition), so its meaning is directly and predictably derived from the constituents. This compositional, medically descriptive pattern is cross-linguistically common and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
The term degenerative disorder gives a clear image: degenerative means slowly breaking down and disorder means an illness. Imagine a machine that loses parts and works less well over time, so it refers to an illness that 'gets worse over time'.