swamp fever
1
8.1
- noun
- /swɑmp ˈfiːvər/
- Specialized
:
fiebre de pantano
- He ingratiated himself with Joseph Smith, partially by flattery and partially by shrewd advice on how to fight swamp fever.
Examples
-
After contracting swamp fever, she experienced severe symptoms, including fever and jaundice.
-
Dumont had concocted a story about Brynn having contracted swamp fever, an illness that left the red-haired crewman listless and smelling rather foul.
Fiction book (1992) -
My mother died of the same swamp fever.
-
"The captain says it's swamp fever."
Fiction book (1992) -
Came down with swamp fever.
Fiction book (1992) -
Just think, we have a professional physician on board in case somebody gets swamp fever.
-
After he had recovered from the swamp fever, though, she found him even less appealing.
Fiction book (1992) -
Begins with the "swamp fever epidemic of 1947... which killed about 80 horses,"
Blog text (14) -
MOST OF MY MEN ARE DOWN WITH SWAMP FEVER.
-
Wren was still weak from her bout with swamp fever, and it took all of her strength and concentration to continue putting one foot in front of the other and to reach out with her hand for one more pull-up.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
2
9.9
An infection from animals that causes fever and yellow skin
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'swamp' and 'fever' can readily infer this refers to a fever associated with swamps or contracted in wetlands, so the basic composition is transparent. However, the term denotes a specific infectious disease (leptospirosis) with particular transmission and symptoms that are not predictable from the constituents alone, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Swamp fever comes from the simple picture of people or animals standing in a wet swamp and then having a high fever. Because the illness often came from bacteria in swamp water or from animals, the name now means the disease 'caught from animals or dirty water'.