septicemic plague
- noun
- /ˌsɛp.tɪˈsiː.mɪk pleɪg/
- Specialized
:
peste séptica
- The doctor explained that septicemic plague can cause severe health complications.
Examples
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Septicemic plague is often linked to untreated bubonic plague infections.
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We are faced with a very serious form of the plague, septicemic plague.
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There is something here more dangerous than septicemic plague.
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In the sixth division, we have two cases of septicemic plague.
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In his research, he found that septicemic plague spreads rapidly without proper treatment.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjectival compound: 'septicemic' (relating to septicemia/bloodstream infection) modifies 'plague' (a disease), so the meaning 'a form of plague involving infection of the bloodstream' follows directly from the constituents. Although medically specialized, the adjective+noun composition is productive and cross-linguistically comparable, so a learner who knows both words can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Septicemic plague comes from older words where septic means 'infection' and -emic means 'blood'. So it means the plague when the infection is in the blood, which is why it is very dangerous and not passed from one person to another.
