pneumonic plague
1
9.2
- noun
- /njuˈmɒnɪk pleɪg/
- Specialized
:
peste neumónica
- To this prospect must be added that of thousands of tons of deadly poison gas and a bacteriological war potential involving anthrax, tularemia, and possibly bubonic and pneumonic plague.
Examples
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Doctors recognize that the symptoms of pneumonic plague include high fever and bloody sputum.
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The transmission of pneumonic plague occurs through airborne droplets among infected individuals.
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As recently as 1994, there were 693 suspected cases of bubonic or pneumonic plague in India.
Academic text (2011) -
And then there's pneumonic plague, which again is the same disease but clinically and epidemiologically distinct.
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In the outbreak of pneumonic plague, many patients experienced severe respiratory distress and chills.
Synonyms
A severe lung infection caused by bacteria that spreads through the air and often kills people
A fast, often deadly lung infection that spreads through the air between people
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective+noun composition: 'pneumonic' (relating to pneumonia/lungs) modifies 'plague' (an infectious disease), so the meaning 'a form of plague affecting the lungs' is directly derivable from the parts. This compositional pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's sense.
Etymology
Pneumonic plague comes from pneumonic, a word meaning 'lung' or 'breath', and plague, meaning 'a serious disease'. Because it attacks the lungs, people can catch it from another person's breath or cough, so it spreads very fast and is often deadly.