collar blight
- noun
- Specialized
- Symptoms of collar blight include bark decay and cankers near the base of the tree.
Examples
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The orchard suffered heavy losses due to collar blight attacking the apple trees.
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Proper drainage can reduce the risk of collar blight in pear orchards.
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The tree showed signs of collar blight last summer.
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Farmers are concerned about collar blight affecting their crops.
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Proper drainage can reduce the risk of collar blight in pear orchards.
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Symptoms of collar blight include bark decay and cankers near the base of the tree.
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The orchard suffered heavy losses due to collar blight attacking the apple trees.
Surface Forms
Morphology
collar + blight
The compound is compositional: 'blight' clearly denotes a plant disease and 'collar' signals a specific location (the area around the trunk/base), so the combined meaning 'disease affecting the trunk collar' can be directly inferred from the parts. This locative + disease pattern is a standard, transparent semantic combination that a B1 learner who knows both words should understand.
Etymology
The plant name collar blight comes from a simple picture: the collar is the ring where the tree trunk meets the ground, and blight means a disease that causes decay. So, when the tree's collar is attacked and rots, the name describes a 'disease at the base of the trunk'.