miliary fever
- noun
- /ˈmɪljəri ˈfiːvər/
- Archaic
:
fiebre miliar
- Symptoms of miliary fever included profuse sweating and a high risk of death.
Examples
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During the 16th century, outbreaks of miliary fever devastated many European communities.
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Physicians in the Renaissance often struggled to distinguish miliary fever from other epidemic diseases.
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During the 16th century, miliary fever caused widespread panic.
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Many historians study miliary fevers to understand past epidemics.
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During the 16th century, outbreaks of miliary fever devastated many European communities.
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Physicians in the Renaissance often struggled to distinguish miliary fever from other epidemic diseases.
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Symptoms of miliary fever included profuse sweating and a high risk of death.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A deadly disease in the 15th and 16th centuries that caused sudden heavy sweating and many deaths
Antonyms
∞
1.0
The condition of a person's body and mind, especially being free from illness or injury
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term is compositionally transparent: 'miliary' describes millet-like small spots or nodules and 'fever' denotes an elevated body temperature, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to a fever accompanied by numerous small spots. Although it is a specialized and now-obsolete medical label, the modifier + noun structure follows regular English composition and is therefore predictable to someone familiar with the component meanings.
Etymology
Miliary fever may come from a simple old image: the word miliary comes from Latin for 'millet' because the skin often had many tiny spots like little seeds, and fever shows high temperature and heavy sweating. That's why the name described a serious old illness with many small skin spots that often caused death.