ragpicker's disease
- noun
- /ˈræɡˌpɪkərz dɪˈziːz/
- Archaic
:
enfermedad del recogedor de trapos
- Doctors identified the rare symptoms as those typical of ragpicker's disease.
Examples
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The outbreak of ragpicker's disease in the factory led to several hospitalizations.
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The patient showed symptoms consistent with ragpicker's disease, prompting immediate medical intervention.
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Proper ventilation and sanitation helped prevent new cases of ragpicker's disease among the workers.
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Many workers are at risk of ragpicker's disease.
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What is ragpicker's disease?
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Health officials warned that inadequate safety measures could lead to cases of ragpicker's disease among waste management workers.
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Enhanced protective gear is essential for those handling materials that could expose them to ragpicker's disease.
Synonyms
80
6.9
A serious disease that mainly affects animals like cows and sheep and can also infect people
1
8.2
A serious lung infection caused when tiny bacteria are breathed in, often deadly without quick treatment
A serious lung infection caused by breathing dust with anthrax bacteria, often from work with wool
A serious lung disease from dust in infected wool that may lead to severe difficulty breathing and heart failure
A severe lung infection from breathing in anthrax spores that quickly becomes life threatening
A serious lung infection caused by breathing in tiny spores that causes severe breathing problems and gets worse quickly
A serious lung infection people get from germs in contaminated wool
Surface Forms
Morphology
ragpicker's + disease
The form is transparently compositional: 'ragpicker's' indicates possession (an occupation: someone who picks rags) and 'disease' denotes an illness, so a learner who knows those constituents will infer this refers to a disease affecting ragpickers (an occupational illness). While the precise medical cause (anthrax) and specific symptoms are not derivable from the parts, the general meaning is directly recoverable from the constituents and common possessive noun + disease patterns across languages.
Etymology
The name ragpicker's disease comes from workers called ragpickers who sorted old animal skins and rags. When these workers breathed in dusty bits, the 'anthrax' germs could enter their lungs and cause a sudden, life‑threatening illness, so the phrase means a severe infection from breathing in contaminated dust.