rock fever
- noun
- /rɑk ˈfiːvər/
- Specialized
:
fiebre de Malta
- The doctor diagnosed the patient with rock fever after he developed a high fever and severe headaches.
Examples
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Consuming unpasteurized milk can increase the risk of getting rock fever.
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People who handle livestock are advised to take precautions to avoid contracting rock fever.
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She was diagnosed with rock fever last week.
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Many people are unaware of rock fever and its symptoms.
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The doctor diagnosed the patient with rock fever after he developed a high fever and severe headaches.
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People who handle livestock are advised to take precautions to avoid contracting rock fever.
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Consuming unpasteurized milk can increase the risk of getting rock fever.
Synonyms
2
8.2
A disease caused by bacteria that animals have and people can catch, causing fever
An illness from bacteria people get from animals or raw milk that causes fever and headache
A disease people get from animals or raw milk that causes fever and flu-like symptoms
An illness people get from infected animals or raw dairy when germs enter the body, causing fever and headache
A disease people get from animals or animal products that causes repeated fevers and headaches
Surface Forms
Morphology
rock + fever
The compound name refers to a specific infectious disease and its transmission, information that is not signaled by the words 'rock' and 'fever' in their ordinary senses; 'rock' gives no clue to pathogen or transmission while 'fever' only denotes a symptom. This is a specialized, lexicalized disease name rather than a transparent description, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not be able to derive the meaning.
Etymology
Rock fever may come from old stories of people who lived or worked on rocky farms and then caught a fever after touching sick animals or drinking raw milk. So rock points to the place and fever names the sickness, which is why the phrase means 'a fever with headache you get from infected animals or meat'.