glandular plague
- noun
- /ˈɡlændjələr pleɪɡ/
- Specialized
- Early symptoms of glandular plague include fever, chills, and the appearance of painful buboes in the groin.
Examples
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The glandular plague is usually contracted after being bitten by an infected flea.
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Treatment of glandular plague with antibiotics greatly improves the chances of recovery.
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Early symptoms of glandular plague include fever and painfully swollen lymph nodes.
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The patient was diagnosed with glandular plague after showing severe symptoms.
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Doctors reported an increase in cases of glandular plague this year.
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The glandular plague is commonly transmitted through flea bites rather than person-to-person contact.
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Prompt treatment of glandular plague with antibiotics is essential for improving recovery chances.
Synonyms
A very serious disease that spreads quickly and kills many people
A serious disease that spreads and causes fever and painful swollen glands
A serious disease causing fever and painful swollen glands spread by fleas from rats
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective+noun combination: 'glandular' means relating to glands and 'plague' is an infectious disease, so the phrase denotes a form of plague that affects glands. This subtype construction is compositionally transparent and follows common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would grasp the basic meaning even if they lack medical details.
Etymology
Glandular plague comes from the literal idea of a plague that mainly attacks the body's glands. It causes painful, swollen lumps under the arm and in the groin after an infected flea bite, so the name means 'the form of plague with swollen glands'.