diphtheria: [19] The disease diphtheria is characterized by the formation of a false membrane in the throat which obstructs breathing, and when the French physician Pierre Bretonneau described it in the 1820s, he coined a name for it based on Greek diphthéra, which means ‘piece of leather’. Using the suffix -itis, denoting inflammation, he formed the modern Latin term diphtheritis (used in English until the 1850s) and its French equivalent diphthérit.
He subsequently substituted diphthérie, and this was borrowed into and established in English in the late 1850s when an epidemic of the disease (then also termed Boulogne sore throat, from its first having been observed in Boulogne) struck Britain.
diphtheria (n.)
from French diphthérie, coined 1857 by physician Pierre Bretonneau (1778-1862) from Greek diphthera "prepared hide, leather," which is of unknown origin; the disease so called for the tough membrane that forms in the throat. Bretonneau's earlier name for it was diphthérite, anglicized as diphtheritis (1826). Formerly known in England as the Boulogne sore throat, because it spread from France.
双语例句
1. Parents are advised to have their children immunized against diphtheria.
建议家长让孩子接种抗白喉疫苗.
来自《简明英汉词典》
2. The doctor diagnosed my illness as diphtheria.
医生诊断我的病为白喉.
来自辞典例句
3. As diphtheria antitoxin is a foreign protein.
白喉抗毒素是并性蛋白.
来自辞典例句
4. The doctor diagnosed the illness as diphtheria.