Dick test
- noun
- Archaic
:
prueba de Dick
- The Dick test was once used in hospitals to identify children at risk for scarlet fever.
Examples
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After a positive Dick test, the patient was considered likely to develop the disease if exposed.
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Advancements in medicine have made the Dick test largely obsolete today.
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The Dick test was once common in medical practice.
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Doctors used the Dick test to check for immunity.
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The Dick test was previously performed to assess a child's risk of contracting scarlet fever.
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In the past, the Dick test helped doctors determine if patients were vulnerable to scarlet fever.
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Before vaccines were developed, the Dick test was routinely used to evaluate susceptibility to scarlet fever.
Synonyms
2
3.5
A medical test that puts a small amount of something on the skin to check for allergy or past infection
Surface Forms
Morphology
Dick + test
This is an eponymic medical term: 'Dick' is a proper name and gives no clue to scarlet fever susceptibility, while 'test' only indicates a diagnostic procedure. A B1 learner who knows the words would not be able to derive the specific historical medical meaning, so the expression is unpredictable from its parts.
Etymology
Dick test is named after a doctor called Dick who created a small skin test for scarlet fever. Doctors put a tiny amount of the germ under the skin and watched for a red reaction. If the skin reacted, the person was 'likely to get' the disease, so the Dick test came to mean a skin check to show who might catch scarlet fever.