epidemic encephalitis
- noun
- /ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk ɛnˈkɛfəlˌaɪtɪs/
- Archaic
:
encefalitis epidémica
- Doctors documented thousands of cases of epidemic encephalitis during the widespread outbreaks between 1915 and 1926.
Examples
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Paralysis of eye muscles was one of the main symptoms seen in patients with epidemic encephalitis.
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The outbreak of epidemic encephalitis devastated many communities in the early twentieth century.
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Doctors documented thousands of cases of epidemic encephalitis between 1915 and 1926.
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The outbreak of epidemic encephalitis shocked the medical community.
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In the 1920s, many cases of epidemic encephalitis were reported.
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Paralysis of the eye muscles was a characteristic symptom of epidemic encephalitis experienced by many patients.
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The outbreak of epidemic encephalitis resulted in marked muscular weakness, affecting numerous individuals in the 1920s.
Synonyms
3
7.2
A serious brain disease that makes people very weak and keeps some eye muscles from working
A brain disease that caused deep sleepiness and severe muscle weakness during an epidemic in the early 1900s
A serious brain illness that causes sudden deep sleep, muscle weakness, and eye paralysis
A brain disease that causes deep sleep, weak muscles, and trouble moving the eyes in the early 1900s
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'epidemic' (affecting many people) modifies 'encephalitis' (inflammation of the brain), so the phrase denotes an outbreak form of brain inflammation. Medical noun–adjective combinations like this are straightforward and cross-linguistically regular, so a learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Epidemic encephalitis comes from a large wave of brain illness that spread widely between 1915 and 1926. The word epidemic shows it 'affected many people' and encephalitis means 'swelling of the brain', which explains why patients could not move their eye muscles and had very weak muscles.