potato murrain
Definition
Noun: 1. A plant disease affecting potatoes: Specifically, "potato murrain" refers to a destructive blight or disease that causes potatoes to rot, historically associated with the Irish Potato Famine. It is a term for the late blight disease caused by the pathogen Phytophthora infestans.
Usage
The term is used to describe the specific disease condition in potato crops. - The spread of potato murrain led to widespread crop failure and famine in the 1840s. - Farmers feared the appearance of potato murrain, as it could devastate their entire harvest.
Advanced Usage
- Historical Context: The term "murrain" is an archaic word for a pestilence or plague affecting animals or plants. "Potato murrain" is thus a historical term most famously associated with the mid-19th century agricultural disaster.
- Historical records describe the terrible impact of the potato murrain on the population.
Variants and Related Words
- Late blight: The modern, more common scientific name for the disease.
- Potato blight: A more general synonym.
- : The scientific name of the water mold that causes the disease.
Synonyms
- Potato blight
- Late blight
Related Phrases/Idioms
This specific term is a technical/historical noun and is not commonly used in idiomatic expressions.
Noun
-
a blight of potatoes
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