false mildew
- noun
- /fɔls ˈmɪlˌdu/
- Specialized
:
falsa ceniza
- The vineyard suffered heavy losses due to false mildew spreading among the grapevines.
Examples
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Potato plants are particularly vulnerable to infection by false mildew during wet seasons.
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Farmers apply special fungicides to protect their crops from false mildew.
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Farmers are concerned about false mildew affecting their crops.
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The false mildew on the grapevines is spreading quickly.
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Farmers apply special fungicides to protect their crops from false mildew.
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Potato plants are particularly vulnerable to infection by false mildew during wet seasons.
-
The vineyard suffered heavy losses due to false mildew spreading among the grapevines.
Synonyms
A plant disease that makes fuzzy, pale patches on leaves and stems
Fungi that live on plants and cause downy mildew diseases
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'false' (not genuine or spurious) combined with 'mildew' yields a straightforward compositional meaning of a mildew-like but not true mildew organism; a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a mildew-like plant disease. This modifier+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common for naming look-alike or non-genuine kinds, so the sense is immediately recoverable from the constituents.
Etymology
False mildew gets its name from a simple image: it 'looks like' regular mildew—the white or grey patches you see on leaves—but is called false because it is a different kind of fungus that attacks plants. So the name false mildew reminds farmers that this disease is mildew-like but a separate problem that can harm crops such as grapes, potatoes and melons.
