mountain fever
- noun
- /ˈmaʊntən ˈfiːvər/
- Specialized
:
fiebre de montaña
- Symptoms of mountain fever typically include fever, headache, and a rash that appears days after a tick bite.
Examples
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Many hikers have contracted mountain fever after being bitten by infected wood ticks in the high country.
-
After spending the summer in the mountains, he was diagnosed with mountain fever due to tick exposure.
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Anyways, both my own folks had passed away with mountain fever, and so my uncle tucked me into his family.
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
A serious disease from germs spread by tick bites that causes fever and a rash
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'mountain fever' is compositionally transparent: 'mountain' (high landform) + 'fever' (elevated body temperature) clearly yields the idea of a fever associated with mountainous areas, which a B1 learner who knows both words can infer. The specific medical etiology (rickettsial bacteria, ticks / Rocky Mountain spotted fever) is specialized and not deducible from the parts, but the general meaning is directly understandable from the constituents.
Etymology
Mountain fever comes from the Rocky Mountains, where hikers bitten by ticks often became very ill and had a high fever. Because doctors used the place, mountain, and the main sign, fever, to name it, 'mountain fever' now means the tick-caused illness known as 'Rocky Mountain spotted fever'.
