thresher's lung
- noun
- /ˈθrɛʃərz lʌŋ/
- Specialized
:
pulmón de trilla
- After years of working in the fields, he developed thresher's lung from inhaling spores in moldy hay.
Examples
-
The doctor diagnosed her with thresher's lung after she experienced persistent coughing and difficulty breathing.
-
Wearing a mask during threshing reduced the risk of developing thresher's lung among agricultural workers.
-
Farm workers are at risk of developing thresher's lung.
-
Many people in agriculture suffer from thresher's lung.
-
After years of working in the fields, he developed thresher's lung from inhaling spores in moldy hay.
-
The doctor diagnosed her with thresher's lung after she experienced persistent coughing and difficulty breathing.
-
Wearing a mask during threshing reduced the risk of developing thresher's lung among agricultural workers.
Synonyms
2
8.9
A condition where infection, allergy or harmful fumes make the lungs swell
An illness of the lungs from breathing moldy hay that makes you cough and have trouble breathing
Inflammation of the tiny air sacs in the lungs often caused by breathing in dust
Surface Forms
Morphology
thresher's + lung
The form 'thresher's lung' transparently combines 'thresher' (someone/machine that threshes) with 'lung', so a learner who knows both words would naturally infer it refers to a lung/respiratory condition associated with threshers. The precise medical cause (allergic reaction to moldy-hay spores) is specialist knowledge and not predictable, but the general meaning as an occupational lung disease is directly derivable from the constituents and follows a common 'X's lung' naming pattern.
Etymology
Thresher's lung is named after the farm machine called a thresher, which beats grain and makes lots of dust. When people breathed dust and tiny fungus spores from moldy hay near the machine, their lung was damaged, so the name now means 'a breathing illness' caused by hay dust.